Regional

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 …

THE untimely death of David Woodford in May 2020 was a huge loss, not just for his family, but also for the wider community and music lovers across the county. While Covid ruled out a large public gathering to mark his passing, David’s legacy is now enshrined in the launch of the Bassment rehearsal space at Clare Youth Service in Ennis. A generous donation from Eileen Woodford on behalf of her late beloved David has allowed young people at CYS to get together, remodel, and design the studio and rehearsal space located in the Ennis Youth Centre. As Eileen explained, David was always a supporter of Clare Youth Service and, with his band ‘Hot Ice’, had run an event to raise funds for the organisation, “David always had great time for young people and helping to revamp their space to allow greater opportunity for young people to come and play music seems very fitting.” It has been nearly 15 years …

CLARE Independent TD Michael McNamara has said he has received confirmation from the National Car Testing Service that two locations for an NCT centre have been identified in the Shannon area. In May the NCTS confirmed that the development of an NCT Centre at the Smithstown Industrial Estate Smithstown halted “due to significant contractual difficulties.” Deputy McNamara, who has been pressing for a second NCT Centre for County Clare, said he has received confirmation from the NCTS that two alternative locations have been identified. “Construction work on the new centre had already commenced at the Smithstown Industrial Estate as far back as last summer, including the erecting of the centre’s steel structure, and it was expected that the centre would be operational by the end of 2021,” he said. “It was disappointing to hear that the development would not be proceeding at the site. However, I am delighted to learn that two new site locations are currently being evaluated.” Deputy …

Pic from John K TULLA has been transformed in recent months by a dedicated team of Tidy Towns volunteers as well as the efforts of individual residents and businesses.  The latest project to be unveiled is the renovation of a boat close to St Mochulla’s National School and the Gort Road junction. “That involved us working with students from St Joseph’s Secondary School who were joining in as part of their work towards the Gaisce Awards,” explained Tim Humphries, Chairperson of Tulla Tidy Towns. “When the students get involved, we really want to give them a good experience and to have activities other than just litter-picking. Their parents also helped out and it was great to see students coming back in their own time to make sure the work got done. Over the course of around a month, they got the work done and it was laborious enough with paint scraping, undercoats and top coats. That area is a busy …

FIANNA Fáil spokesperson on Aviation Cathal Crowe is calling for strong consideration to be given to the establishment of a hydrogen fuel farm within the Shannon Airport complex. He said this would see the airport establish itself as a world leader in terms of sustainable aviation, at a time of significant change in the sector. The Clare TD said he had written to the Shannon Estuary Economic Taskforce, outlining his proposal to plan for a hydrogen fuel farm at Shannon Airport. “The Green Atlantic Windfarm planned off of the coast of Clare provides for a €50 million Synchronous Compensator, will convert electricity generated via the wind turbine infrastructure to storable hydrogen fuel. All of this will happen on site at Moneypoint, just 65km west of Shannon Airport. “Meanwhile, a fuel farm was developed at Shannon Airport in the 1970s and has the capacity to store 33,000 metric tonnes of aviation fuel. “It would make perfect sense for the hydrogen generated …

WOLFE Tones held the finals night of its Johnny Cregan Memorial Tournament last week. The hurling tournament for local national schools was organised to help promote the game with young people in the town, and to commemorate Johnny, who was a well known figure within the club for many years. After a blitz day on June 15, the finals night took place last Wednesday. Wolfe Tones Paul Hogan said, “We wanted to get the schools in Shannon engaged in hurling again, and to promote hurling within the town. “The best way to promote is through the schools and we felt that if we had a Shannon schools championship and get every school in Shannon to enter, it’d be one way of getting exposure of it into every school. “We’re going to do the same for gaelic football later on, after the Cumann na mBunscoil has taken place, but we just said that with the Clare hurlers going well we’ll tackle …

CLARE County Council is coming under pressure to lead a multi-agency approach to tackle persistent anti-social behaviour after Ennis residents outlined their experiences of “neighbours from hell” for almost seven years. Councillor Johnny Flynn, Ennis Mayor, Clare Colleran-Molloy and Councillor Mary Howard have called for a multi-agency approach involving the council, Tusla, Clare Gardai, councillors, and residents to evict local authority tenants who are causing havoc in estates. Their call came after hearing a litany of complaints from frustrated residents who claimed they were “living in fear” and were “prisoners in their own homes” at a residents’ meeting on Monday night, which was also attended by Councillor Paul Murphy and Councillor Mark Nestor. One resident in the affected Ennis estate described Family A as the “neighbours from hell”. She has asked to remain anonymous and for the estate to remain unnamed due to residents’ fear of a reprisal. “We are living in fear. There is intimidation, verbal abuse and physical …

THE inaugural Wings Music Festival came to its end last Sunday night, with a raucous session at the Shannon Springs. The festival began six days earlier and saw music and performance at a number of venues around the town, including Saturday night’s show at the Leisure Centre, which featured Luka Bloom, Cyril O’Donoghue and Mickey Dunne. Wings was the brainchild of Damian O’Rourke, who put in a great effort to organise venues, musicians and to get the town engaged with the festival. Speaking this week, he said that the first and last sessions, both open to all musicians and held at the Shannon Springs Hotel, were the highlights for him. “The opening session on the Monday, and then closing on the Sunday, they were pretty special, people just came in and played songs. “On Sunday we started at 1pm in the Shannon Springs and it was going for 11 and a half hours. “I’d say it was the longest recorded …