Ennis

MORE than 40 craftspeople, artists and antique dealers have already taken retail space in the newly-opened arts, antiques and craft centre and restaurant at the former Coach House pub in Clarecastle. The Castle, a three-storey building, has been given a €1m restoration through the partnership of antiques expert, Paul Walsh – who operated in the nearby Antique Loft premises across the road for many years; coach operator, PJ Keogh, of PK Travel; and tourism and accommodation specialist, Emelyn Heaps, of Renaissance Resorts. Walsh also had a successful antiques business in Kilcolgan, County Galway, which he sold two years ago, thinking to retire and spend more time indulging in his hobby of horse-training. However, his friend, Emelyn, had other ideas. “Emelyn said to me, ‘Your building would make a great craft building’ but I told him it’s not big enough on its own. It might be okay for crafts but it’s not big enough to make it a draw for people. …

A Clare Peace Park Initiative to erect a First World War memorial in honour of the Clare men who served and died in the conflict has been granted planning permission. The development, which will now proceed in partnership with the council, is on 0.1 hectares of land at Causeway Link, across the road from Glór, in Ennis and will consist of three standing stones, with inscriptions, which will be surrounded by about 100 square metres of paving with pathways in and out of the memorial site. The group’s chairperson, Dr Keir McNamara, is pleased that the initiative has been granted permission and would welcome further sponsorship to ensure the project can get off the ground as quickly as possible. “If we could get in the last bit of money we need, there’s no reason it couldn’t be completed by the end of this year. If we have a slower response to the fundraising effort, we would probably be looking at the middle of …

THE heyday of vinyl is well past, having been overtaken many times – by cassettes, themselves long antiquated; CDs, downloads and streaming. While there is no doubt that both collecting and listening to the old-style records is now a niche interest, it’s a niche that isn’t without its devotees and apparently the numbers of fans of vinyl are actually going up. Sinéad Nic Síoda is running the Record Break Café in Ennis and in her store she stocks vinyl from stars of decades gone by but, surprisingly, there are also very recent releases. For example, U2’s most recent album, Songs of Innocence, which was controversially released on iTunes last September, is there on vinyl, while for the not insignificant sum of €300 you can buy a limited edition collection of all Eminem’s work. Slim Shady on vinyl, who’d have thought it? There is little problem getting new records, Sinead says, and she believes there is more interest in them now. …

FIRE services in Ennis and Bord Gais employees were called to The Square in O’Connell Street this Friday morning following a suspected gas leak. The top of O’Connell Street was cordoned off and checks were made in the surrounding area. Clare Fire Service later confirmed that no gas leak was found and the likely cause of the odour was from the town drains, adding that the O’Connell Street drains were flushed out by the fire personnel.

A 12-year-old Ennis National School pupil represented his county at the Munster Spelling Bee final in Cork. Stephen Cahill was runner-up at last Friday’s event, which was part of an overall Eason literacy and reading initiative that aims to inspire children to develop a greater appreciation of words in a fun and educational way, and to encourage them to perfect their spelling and pronunciation skills. Stephen went head to head with Michael O’ Donnell from Tipperary, who was crowned Munster champion and will go on to represent his province at the Eason Spelling Bee All-Ireland final. Four provincial winners will then battle it out for the 2015 Eason All-Ireland Spelling Bee Champion title and for the chance to win a library of books for their school.

Two separate car crashes brought disruption to a sunny Sunday evening in Ennis. The incidents resulted in traffic being redirected while gardaí inspected the scenes. There were reports of a car being driving erratically around the time of the incidents, just before eight o’clock last night. Cars were struck at the Mill Road and Barrack Street. There were a number of occupants inside the car that was hit in the second crash. A man was subsequently apprehended by gardaí. On Friday night, a teenage boy was airlifted to hospital in Cork after he was struck by a car, as he cycled between Sixmilebridge and Cratloe. A man in his 30s remains in hospital after he was injured in a single car accident at Shannon Banks on Saturday night.

AN exciting mix of street entertainment, including circus and comedy, dance and theatre, will underpin the 10th annual Ennis Street Festival on the first weekend of July. During the three-day festival, Ennis will come alive with fun, art, culture, heritage and festivities featuring local, national and international acts and performances. There will also be a variety of workshops for children and adults, in association with Glór. At night there will be the Ennis Sounds Good music event, with 36 gigs in 15 different venues around the town. The theme of this year’s festival is Celtic Connections. “The Celtic tradition has always had a direct influence on the Ennis Street Festival. Over the last 10 years, we have created connections with a variety of local community groups, national and international artists, who celebrate a Celtic tribal influence. As a result, this year we are celebrating this harmonious co-existence and the beginning of a transition to times of rejuvenated success,” a spokesperson explained.

UP-and-coming Ennis golfer Ronan Herbert took a big step forward in his promising golf career when he earned the right to play in the US Kids Golf European Championship, which was decided over a number of historic links in Scotland recently. The nine-year-old did not feature among the winners but was proud to represent his country and Ennis Golf Club and tee off with the world’s best young golfers, aged five to 18. More than 550 of them from 35 nations competed in what is Europe’s premier junior golf tournament. Ronan won his way to Scotland through winning the Irish final of the US Kids event in Portmarnock on April 10 last. On that occasion he shot a level-par round and over the Gullane links in Scotland’s East Lothian, he turned in respectable scores in very difficult weather conditions. Ronan,who plays off a handicap of 16, is a son of Leo and Jana Herbert and a pupil of Scoil Críost …