Regional

One-hundred years ago, a remarkable East Clare woman was rescued from the Titanic and on Sunday, April 15, the 100th anniversary of the day she was rescued by the Carpathia, Mary Agatha Glynn will be commemorated in her own parish in East Clare.Born in Slievanore, a townland about three miles from Flagmount, in February 1893, Mary Agatha Glynn was one of the first steerage passengers to survive Titanic. She was the elder daughter in a family 10 born to Pat Glynn and his wife, Ellen Guilfoyle. Aged 19, Mary Agatha had used a ticket purchased by the Glynn family to board the Titanic at Queenstown, Cobh, Cork and was intending to travel on to her cousin, Mrs D Courtnay, in Capital Hill, Washington.It is not clear what Mary’s connection was with 13 young people from Adergoole in County Mayo or if she was merely sharing cabins with the group but for whatever reasons, the fate of 11 of the group …

PRIMING grants for local groups such as residents associations and voluntary groups could be hit if future local government funding is cut due to the performance of the household charge, according to Ennis town manager, Ger Dollard.

GORT is set to be made more accessible next year after Galway County Council confirmed it has been in contact with the National Roads Authority (NRA) about footpaths in the town.Deputy Mayor of Galway County Council Bridie Willers tabled a motion at a recent meeting of the local authority, calling for the town to be made wheelchair accessible.“There don’t have to be complaints about this, anyone who looks can see the problem,” Councillor Willers told The Clare Champion.She said a survey in Gort by a disability interest group highlighted the shortfall with regard to the state of the footpaths. “There are some new footpaths in the town but others leave an awful lot to be desired. What we take for granted as accessible can be extremely difficult if you are pushing a wheelchair or a buggie or if you are visually impaired or have any mobility difficulty. You will find that lip or edge on a path is a disaster …

IMPROVEMENT works costing an estimated €1 million is needed in one of the largest housing estates in South-East Clare, a local senior engineer has revealed.Senior executive engineer Hugh McGrath has estimated the large scale work needs to be done before Clare County Council can take in charge the Westbury Housing Estate.Mr McGrath told a recent meeting of the Killaloe Electoral Area that he didn’t have a definite date as to when the council would be in a position to take Westbury in charge.Acknowledging the frustration being expressed by local county councillors about the delay, Mr McGrath said when he joined the council as an engineer in 2001 he was sent to Westbury to complete some work in relation to assessing what work needed to be done.“Negotiations are continuing with the insurance companies holding bonds on this estate. While progress has been very slow, it is anticipated that sufficient information will be in place in the next six to eight weeks …

OVERALL employment at Shannon Free Zone declined by 3% last year, Shannon Development has revealed. Five hundred and eighty jobs were lost, while 406 jobs were gained over the 12-month period.Shannon Development chief executive Vincent Cunnane said while there is a decline, it is less serious than in other years. “We sort of hoped we had arrested that decline and we would have been more encouraged over the last year but we had thought we’d break even. There were jobs created in Zagg and Cregg but more jobs were lost.”He said it was positive that the vast majority of job losses were not down to closures. “Major companies are having to deal with the impact of a huge global economic downturn. They’ve been dealing with it two-fold; they’ve been looking at their staff retirements and they’ve been bringing best practice into their operations; more efficient, best engineering practice and lean engineering. We’ve done a lot of work with companies in …

OVER one million black bags of rubbish are unaccounted for in the county, with almost half of all Clare householders not availing of a waste collection service, it has been claimed. At this week’s meeting of Ennis Town Council, Councillor Johnny Flynn urged that the county council adopt household waste bylaws.“Fourty-seven per cent of Clare householders are not signed to registered waste collectors. I am asking that a policy similar to what is being done in Limerick and Leitrim be introduced, where households must demonstrate that they have alternative arrangements in place that satisfy the local authority,” he said.He insisted that the problem of flytipping on the outskirts of Ennis is affecting people’s quality of life. “Ennis is one of the towns that is most badly affected by flytipping,” he stated. According to Councillor Flynn, 47,000 tonnes of waste are produced in Clare every year, with 30,000 of that accounted for and managed. “That leaves 17,000 unaccounted for, which is …

A North Clare councillor has claimed that “conservation and heritage are being put before health and safety” at Blake’s Corner in Ennistymon. Councillor Bill Slattery from Lahinch submitted a notice of motion at a recent meeting of Ennistymon Electoral Area representatives calling for the steps at the listed buildings to be backfilled on the grounds of public safety. “In light of continuing delays and serious safety concerns at Blake’s Corner, Ennisytmon,” the Fine Gael councillor requested “the senior executive engineer to back fill the steps bringing them to road surface level and remove the two sidewalls at Blake’s and Linnane’s to protect the safety of both motorists and pedestrians.”In a written reply, Senior Executive Engineer, Ennistymon Area Office, Stephen Lahiffe confirmed “it has always been the intention of Clare County Council to provide a roundabout, public footpath and pedestrian crossings at Blake’s Corner. This is the only way to minimise the risk to motorists and pedestrians alike. Until this is …

Clare County Council isn’t in a position to extend Quin Sewerage Scheme to take in an extra three houses, a meeting has been told.Councillor Sonny Scanlan has requested the council to investigate the feasibility of extending the public sewerage scheme to Frank Enright’s on the Tulla Road.Councillor Scanlan claimed at an Ennis Electoral Area meeting on Monday that a bridge constructed by the Office of Public Works (OPW) wasn’t high enough to take the huge volume of water during the flooding of the Rhine River in the winter of 2009 and 2010.The Fine Gael councillor said three houses had their septic tanks flooded while two of them had about one foot of water in their houses, making them unusable for several months.He asked if the council could extend the public sewerage scheme about 100 yards to take in these three houses. Senior executive engineer Eamon O’Dea told the meeting the council could request the Department of the Environment to sanction …