Regional

THE road from Clareabbey to Barrack Street in Clarecastle has been described as “resembling a patchwork quilt” by local Councillor Paul Murphy. A meeting of the Ennis Municipal District has confirmed that an application for funding to resurface the road has been submitted to Transport Infrastructure Ireland with plans for works to take place next year. Councillor Murphy had called for the road resurfacing, including the junction with Old Road/Church Drive, to be “carried out as soon as possible”. Paddy Tiernan, A/Senior Executive Engineer, responded, “An application for funding has been submitted to the TII under the Former National Roads Scheme. It is envisaged this road will be re-surfaced in Q2 2023.” Councillor Murphy described the response as “pretty positive, and I’m hoping it will come forward early summer and late spring. The road resembles a patchwork quilt at this stage with plenty of dips and hollows.” Councillor Clare Colleran Molloy supported the motion, adding it was “wonderful” to see …

CLOSER links between the villages of Bridgetown and O’Brien’s Bridge could be on the horizon, after a well-received motion from Councillor Tony O’Brien. The Fianna Fáil member, who is also Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council, has proposed the installation of a footpath, incorporating a cycle lane, from the village of Bridgetown to O’Brien’s Bridge and Upper Ardnataggle on the R463. “This necessary piece of infrastructure would enable the community to access their local amenities such as the church, school, public houses and community playing pitch,” a motion before the Killaloe Municipal District outlined. “In the case of the primary school alone, it would cut down on a huge amount of private cars using the area on a daily basis as students cannot walk or cycle to school because of road safety concerns.” The Killaloe man told the end-of-year district meeting that the area in question is “very large and highly populated”. “This is very necessary infrastructure,” he said. “The area …

A DECISION is expected next month on an application to create four serviced sites in Quin, with outline permission for four detached homes on them.  Concerns had been raised by local authority planners over a number of aspects of the proposals, but the developer has recently responded to a Further Information (FI) request, in a bid to address these.  Jimal Investments applied in September for permission to demolish an existing house and store at Quingardens, and to create four services sites with an access road and connection to public services. Outline permission to construct four houses and garages on the serviced sites was also sought.  No objections were made, but in November, the Council contacted the company seeking FI on three aspects of the plans – storm water drainage; bat roosts and the site layout.  The letter from the local authority expressed “serious concerns” over arrangements proposed for the discharge of storm water. It asked the developer for calculations of …

DESIGNS for three homes proposed for the village of O’Callaghan’s Mills have been revised by the developer, after planners described them as “highly suburban” and “not acceptable for a village setting”.  East Clare Construction have just submitted a response to a Further Information (FI) request from the Council. This 12-page document includes fresh house designs which the company have described “suitable for this village”. The developers have also responded to other issues raised by the local authority and reduced the proposed floor level for one of the sites. They have corrected a misprint on the previously-submitted layout map to show the correct ground level, removing the perception of a sharp gradient where the proposed access road connects to the R466.  The company, whose directors are listed as Joe and Teresa Cooney of Ballymacdonnell, Bodyke, have also clarified their intentions for another parcel of zoned lands in their ownership close to the development site. The FI response said that, “any further …

A BELOVED sporting tradition of North Clare makes its comeback this Christmas after two years on the sidelines during the pandemic. The annual Ennistymon Christmas Day basketball game returns for the 62nd time on the 25th of the month. First played in 1958, Covid put a halt to the game so while it is 64 years since its initiation this will be only the 62nd edition. No year had been missed where possible however, and the location of the games helps to illustrate some of the history of basketball in the area and its survival, Enda Byrt told the Clare Champion. The game has been played at the Market House (The Madison Square Garden of basketball in its day!) The Town Hall, The Sluagh Hall Lahinch (now demolished) The Community Centre Ennistymon the Centre Lahinch, outdoors at the old Scout Hall court the Vocational School and once at the Pavilion Lisdoonvarna! In recent years the Inagh Community Centre has hosted …

RESIDENTS of Gort are being “driven crazy” by problems with the town’s water supply and Irish Water has been strongly criticised for its handling of the situation. People in the town were left without water through some of last week’s extreme cold weather, while the town has a boil notice in place just days before Christmas. Local county councillor Gerry Finnerty said the problems have been going on for a long time, and Irish Water can’t blame it on the frosty weather seen last week. “The first call I’d have got was in November that there was an outage and that was long before there was any frost, and it’s ongoing since then. “The outages are unannounced, nobody knows anything, you just turn on the tap and find you don’t have water and it’s just driving people crazy.” Local TD Ciaran Cannon was also very angry when he spoke to the Clare Champion this week. “We had a very significant …

ADVENTURER Declan McEvoy is back on home ground for Christmas after completing the gruelling sixth stage of his round-the-world motorcycle odyssey.   In September, the Quin native set out from Lusaka in Zambia, with the aim of travelling along the West of the African continent, all the way to Dakar in Senegal. Last month, he reached Banjul in Gambia, after a marathon motorcycle trek. Throughout the epic African journey of more than 10,000km, Declan had been keeping friends, family and followers updated on WhatsApp. “Reaching Banjul could only be described as a surreal experience and if I’m to be honest I felt somewhat emotional on my arrival,” he said. “There had been times throughout this trip that I wondered if I’m ever going to make my planned destination, but for some reason it seems I just did. It takes more than determination and stubbornness, the latter apparently of which I have in abundance, to make such a journey through Africa …

CHRISTMAS at Oatfield in East Clare will see a double celebration, as the community marks the completion of works to restore the village’s famous Barn Church, which dates to the 1600s. The careful restoration, upgrading and development of what is believed to be the oldest church in the Killaloe Diocese, has taken almost a decade, and is the result of huge dedication on the part of the local community. Since 2013, thanks to intensive fundraising, essential repairs have been carried out on the protected structure. These include works on the doors, bell tower, storage building and foot-paths. Other work has been done on erecting piers and gates at the car park entrance, as well as the full refurbishment of the kneeling boards in the church. In 2020, local man Donal Ryan created and installed a replica of the original, historical altar, which was removed in the 1960s. In the last couple of weeks, with the completion by Lenihans contractors, of …