Regional

KAVA presents a solo exhibition of paintings by Mavis Gormally from July 15 to 24 at the Courthouse Gallery in Kinvara. An official launch for Path to Home takes place on Friday, July 15, at 7.30pm and all are welcome.  More than 30 paintings will be on display, depicting landscapes, heritage sites, and seascape scenes of the Gort, Kinvara, and surrounding areas.  A fine artist and painting tutor, Mavis enjoys sharing her passion for art through teaching painting in the locality. She currently teaches pre-teens, teens, and adults from her home studio and has been sharing her knowledge and love for art in this way since before she moved to Ireland.  Mavis was born in New York City, raised on Long Island, and relocated to Gort in 2003. Though moving from New York to Gort was a big change, Mavis has found great inspiration for her subject matter, the landscape, in the rural surrounds. This body of work was executed during the …

BOAT users are being urged to ensure their vessel is serviced and in safe working order as Lough Derg RNLI helped two vessels in difficulty in back-to-back shouts at the weekend. On Sunday afternoon July 3, Valentia Coast Guard requested Lough Derg RNLI lifeboat to launch to assist three people on a 25ft motor cruiser adrift with steering failure near Williamstown on the country Clare shoreline. At 2.30pm Lough Derg RNLI lifeboat Jean Spier launched with helm Owen Cavanagh, Joe O’Donoghue, Chris Parker and Ciara Moylan on board. At 2.35pm the lifeboat arrived on scene. The lifeboat transferred a volunteer across to the casualty vessel who established that all on board were safe and unharmed and wearing their lifejackets. The cruiser had power but its steering had failed. The skipper had dropped anchor to prevent drift across the navigation channel. Given the location and weather, the RNLI lifeboat helm made the decision to take the vessel under tow, and as …

With pic from John K A CREATIVE streak and a talent for cooking have made a dream come true for a young Tulla woman, who has given up her job in the capital to relocate to her native Clare where she now runs a food business.  Grace Corry from Crag Hill is a familiar and welcome face for many loyal customers in Tulla who flock to Morsel, which operates outside the local hurling field from Tuesday to Saturday, from morning to lunchtime. Right now, the business is celebrating its first major food award, having just taken the top prize for savoury pastry at the Clonmel Show.  “It was my first time to enter a food competition and I’m just delighted with the win,” Grace said. “I entered some sausage rolls that I regularly sell from Morsel. I hand make the puff pastry and get the pork from Liam O’Meara’s in Tulla, because I really want them to be something special. …

A LARGE bottle cap mural has been installed at Kilnaboy National School, the result of much work from the whole school community. Teacher Fiona Corry Forde drove the project, and she said the mural reflects the Burren’s landscape, which she said is important to the school. “Traditionally the children would always learn a lot about their own local environment and we take part in the Burren Beo programme as often as it comes around.” The mural is 14.3 metres by 3.5 metres and she explained where the idea came from. “Basically it came about because this time last year I heard an interview with a principal down in County Cork, in a school called Ballymoney, down near Clonakilty. She was interviewed by Kathryn Thomas about a bottlecap mural they had done. I googled pictures of it and I thought that’s fabulous and I’d love to have a go at it with the kids in Kilnaboy.” School principal Gerry Connors was …

IT may be high summer, but the usual activities are being run by Clare Youth Service in Shannon. “We’ve decided to continue on our programmes throughout the summer because the attendance at them is still quite high. Usually with people going away and doing different things you’d see a drop off, but because young people are still engaging with the programmes we’ve decided to keep them going and add in a few other ones,” said youth worker Thomas O’Hara. Young people about to start secondary school are being catered for, he said. “We’re starting our transition programme this week, our transistion to first year programme with groups of young people moving from sixth class to first year. That’s on Wednesday afternoons and it’s all based on discussions around what they can expect going into first year. We’ll be running through different communication games and exercises and stuff like that, a bit of team building and introducing them to the programmes …

STUDENTS from across Clare and the MidWest have been inspired to develop creative, innovative and entrepreneurial skills for life as part of this year’s EMPOWER programme. The free programme, designed and developed by Mary Immaculate College (MIC) and the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), saw Transition Year (TY) and Fifth Year students tasked with finding innovative solutions to some of the mobility challenges facing society. Now in its sixth year, the EMPOWER programme partnered with Jaguar Land Rover to give students a real hands-on approach to the tasks they faced. Held from June 7 to 17, the theme of this year’s programme was ‘The Future of Mobility’. The participating students spent a day at Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) R&D Software Engineering Centre in Shannon where they took part in a Hackathon, mentored by JLR engineers, to give students a first-person experience of handling their own Future of Mobility projects. According to Patricia O’Sullivan, Enterprise and Community Engagement Manager at MIC, this year’s programme was hugely successful. “EMPOWER …

FROM all across the United States members of the O’Dea clan will be in Ennis and Dysert O’Dea this weekend for their 11th annual clan gathering. The international O’Dea clan gathering, from July 8 to 10, will see more than 50 clan members travelling from various parts of the USA, including California, Florida, Missouri, Ohio and other states to attend the event. Unfortunately, clan members from Australia and New Zealand will not be attending due to Covid 19 restrictions. Nevertheless, a fully packed weekend programme for those attending includes lectures, DNA workshops, a visit to Dysert O’Dea castle, a sightseeing tour to the Cliffs of Moher, Ballyvaughan and Corcomroe abbey and a farewell gala dinner in the Old Ground Hotel. The highlight of the weekend will be the inauguration of the incoming Clan Chieftain (Taoisigh) Ennis man Shane O’Dea at Dysert O’Dea castle on, Saturday. In honour of the weekend event, the Ennis Municipal District will host a mayoral reception …

A UNIQUE and touching film about a lovelorn North Clare bachelor will be screened in Galway on Friday (July 8), as part of a retrospective on Danish documentarian, Jon Bang Carlsen.  ‘It’s Now or Never’ was shot on location in Ballyvaughan and Fanore in the mid-‘90s, with local residents taking the lead roles. Among them was Austin Deely of Feenagh, who reminisced this week with Mr Carlsen about his film début.  The movie will be screened at the Pálás Cinema during the Galway Film Fleadh, and is part of a double bill. The other work is entitled, ‘My Irish Diary’ (Min Irske Dagbog). Also made in the ’90s, the short film follows six-year-old Hjalmar, who gradually comes to appreciate the strange language and weather, after his family moves to the Atlantic coast of Ireland.  After the screening, there will be an opportunity to learn more about Mr Carlsen’s work and about the documentary form, through a Q&A led by Corofin-based …