Regional

COLÁISTE Muire has gone digital with the introduction of iPads for all new first years. This follows discussions early in the year with parents, board of management and staff. School principal Jean Pound explained why they decided to take the plunge and move away from traditional school books.

A UNIQUE three-peak charity challenge will take place in the twin communities of Killaloe and Ballina on October 13 and 14.

COLÁISTE Muire has become one of only a few schools in Munster where transition-year pupils can study Chinese. The Ennis school has this week welcomed teacher William Gaowei Zhang from the Shanxi province near Beijing to teach its 60 transition-year pupils.According to William, he has already been very impressed with what he has seen in Ennis. “It is already going very good. The pupils are so active and all of the teachers have been very nice. “I am working in University College Cork so I travel up to Ennis every week but it is a very worthwhile three-hour trip.”He added, “There are many languages for transition-year pupils to learn and I think it’s great that they can speak so many. Chinese is very special and different and I believe they can learn it very quickly and master its basic usage and also traditional Chinese words.”On his first day teaching at the school, he presented the class with a Chinese knot. …

Ennis will celebrate its links with The Greatest when it holds the second annual Be The Best That You Can Be seminar at Glór next Wednesday.Muhammad Ali, the three-time World Heavyweight Champion, was named the first Honorary Freeman of Ennis in September 2009 in recognition of his career achievements and his ancestral links with the Clare county capital.  Over 15,000 people watched him receive a civic reception before embarking on a drive through the streets of Ennis and a personal visit to the ancestral home of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady.Next Wednesday, 500 secondary-school pupils will attend a seminar featuring motivational talks and workshops concentrating on music, sport, relaxation and drug awareness. Speakers will include TV presenter and clinical psychologist David Coleman and Ian Taylor, the youngest Irishman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.The event is being hosted by Ennis Town Council and Clare Youth Service. According to Mayor of Ennis, Councillor Peter Considine, “On September 2, 2009, Muhammad Ali …

ENNIS has been dismissed as a “backwater” in the Mid-West Area Strategic Plan (MWASP) in terms of the county capital’s future economic development, it has been claimed. Councillor Johnny Flynn has described as “frightening” that the strategy sees Ennis’ potential for jobs as only being in domestic, traded services and tourism areas. He believes this could preclude other industries from deciding to locate to Ennis.  He was speaking as he highlighted the unemployment “crisis” in Ennis at a meeting of councillors within the Ennis East electoral area this week. However, calls by Councillor Flynn for the establishment of an Ennis and Environs Economic Task Force to be set up have been rejected.At this week’s meeting, Councillor Flynn urged the taskforce be set up saying, “The situation is at a crisis stage, in 2002 we had 8% unemployment, now in 2012 its 14.5%. We have 4,000 extra people signing on in Ennis and the Environs and nearly two-thirds of those are …

RESIDENTS of the Beechpark housing estate have been left “in a limbo” waiting for the development to be taken over by Clare County Council, it has been claimed.At this week’s meeting of Ennis West Electoral Area councillors, both councillors James Breen and Tony Mulqueen urged that the local authority take over the estate.According to Councillor Breen, the council have drawn down the bond on the housing development. Councillor Mulqueen criticised the amount of money spent on nearby Traveller accommodation, while Beechpark has yet to be taken over by the council.“These people are paying their household charges and they are not getting services, while across the road, there is a halting site costing huge money,” he said.Councillor Breen told the meeting, “I am led to believe that the bond was drawn down a long time ago by Clare County Council. The housing estate has been left in a limbo, I see no reason why no steps have been taken to finish …

IT is likely to be some time before the planned upgrade of Shannon’s Wastewater Treatment Plant will even get underway, while it also looks like funding for advance works for the Shannon Sewerage Scheme won’t be available.At this week’s meeting of local area councillors, Councillor Gerry Flynn put forward a motion asking “that the environment section of Clare County Council provide a report detailing the current situation concerning Shannon’s Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade and also advise when the planned project is likely to go ahead”.In a written reply, Anthony McNamara, senior executive engineer with the council’s Water Services Section stated, “The preliminary report, which was prepared for the council by Nicholas O’Dwyer, Consulting Engineers, was submitted to the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (DEHLG) in May 2011 and is awaiting approval.“Following approval of the report, it will be necessary to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for submission to An Bord Pleanála and this process is intended …

THE benefits to local companies of considering cross-border business opportunities as a means of developing their business and expanding market reach is the subject of a breakfast briefing, being organised by Shannon Chamber in conjunction with InterTradeIreland.It will take place at the Radisson Blu Hotel on the Ennis Road in Limerick on Wednesday, September 26, beginning at 8.30am and will focus on the types of support that InterTradeIreland can offer SMEs at many levels.Margaret Hearty, director of programmes and business services with InterTradeIreland explained, “We are delighted to partner with Shannon Chamber to address SMEs in the Shannon area on the range of programmes open to companies to develop and strengthen their businesses. We will concentrate on three specific areas: sales and marketing; innovation and R&D and VC funding. We will show how our Acumen, Elevate and Public Procurement programmes have helped companies grow their businesses on the island of Ireland, take their business to a new level and get …