Tag Archives: Carrigaholt

A MEMBER of the West Clare Municipal District has expressed his fears over the safety of holiday-makers at a caravan park in Carrigaholt, where there is no footpath on a 350km section of road into the village. Tabling a motion at the most recent district meeting, Councillor Cillian Murphy said there was an opportunity for the council to put in a path after work on the drains along route between Carrigaholt and the Amigos Holiday Park. “This road is narrow, fast and dark,” the Fianna Fáil member said. “There are 120 caravans, the council gave planning permission for site. There could be up to 400 people staying there, many of them children.” Expressing his dissatisfaction with a response from the local authority, saying there are no plans to construct a footpath, Councillor Murphy said, “The park is a key economic driver for the village and is a rate-payer. The lack of a path reinforces reliance on cars”. The motion was …

A total of €138,000 in funding is to be rolled out to three separate harbours in Clare for essential works. Clare County Council has been granted the funding for works in piers at Carrigaholt, Ballyvaughan and Bournapeaka. The grants are part of an overall €3.1 million package for coastal local authorities to carry out improvement works at these developments. The biggest sum of €51,750 has been granted to Bournapeaka Pier in Ballyvaughan, which will go towards underpinning the mid-section of the pier; removing and replacing a cracked section; the removal of a section of deck and removing and relaying a cracked stone along the pier edge.Nearby Ballyvaughan pier has been awarded €48,750 for the installation of flood gate and three flap valves, as well as the provision of rock armour to protect the pier wall. The final grant of €37,500 has been awarded to Carrigholt pier for essential repair work and the reconstruction of section of old pier wall. “I …

THE lock-down has certainly be put to good use by a eight branches of a West Clare family, whose membership extends from the Loop Head Peninsula all the way to San Francisco. Over the month of April, the Keane Family Challenge has seen more than 40 members take part in all kinds of fitness and sporting activities to raise over than €2,000 for the West Clare Cancer Centre in Kilkee. The mastermind of the fitness and fund-raising challenge is Johnny Doris of Portarlington. He is the grandson of Kathleen and John Keane, of Keane’s Pub in Carrigaholt. Their eight children include Johnny’s mother Bridget Doris, now based in County Laois, and her twin sister Mary Greene, who lives north of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Johnny’s uncles Dominic and John Keane live in the US where they have been immersed in the challenge, as have his godmother Kathleen Foley of Foley’s Pub in Cross, and Mags and Pakie Keane …

THE community of Carrigaholt are hoping to secure the honour of hosting the very first ‘virtual’ festival, after Covid-19 restrictions forced the cancellation of the 30th annual Oyster and Traditional Music Festival. Disappointment at the axing of the event, which was set to be all the more memorable to celebrate three decades, sparked a bright idea for Annabel McMahon who had been tasked with the PR and marketing. Annabel, who runs a digital marketing company in Carrigaholt, said the idea of going virtual quickly snowballed: “We were really so sad that nothing was happening when normally there would have been such a huge build-up to the festival,” she explained. “Last Friday, I contacted the organising team and asked them what they thought about creating a virtual festival on-line. They said, ‘why not?’ and so by 11am, I’d put the call out on Facebook to all of the performers who would normally be here to send their videos.” A outage of the …

  AN emotional appeal has been made by a number of community leaders for those intending to travel to Clare holiday homes for Easter to cancel their plans. Despite the signing into law of stringent new Garda powers to enforce the Covid-19 lock-down, concerns remain that many have flocked to the West in recent days. The Director of Nursing at St Theresa’s Nursing Home in Kilrush told The Champion that the increase in visitors has been noticeable, and said the situation is a great risk to aging communities are already living in fear. “The risk they are bringing is not just to us in the Nursing Home and protection agencies but also to the many ageing communities in West Clare,” Yvonne Moroney said. “This is the same area they love to visit year after year, but it will not be the same if the infection was to catch on in our small communities. Many people are worried about what people …

DISTURBING new figures have revealed that the projected number of enrolments in seven West Clare schools, in just three years’ time, will just be sufficient to fill a single classroom. Additional statistics also found that there is significant decline in full time residents living in Doonbeg village, with only 41% of houses occupied permanently. According to information obtained by the Clare Champion, the combined influx of Junior Infants in the three most westerly parishes on the Loop Head Peninsula, Kilkee, Carrigaholt and Cross, will be just above 30 pupils in 2021. Co-parish priest of Kilkee, Cross, Carrigaholt and Doonbeg, Fr Gerry Kenny warns that more national school amalgamations will have to be considered in the peninsula, unless there is a dramatic increase in population. Fr Kenny expressed grave concern about the generation gap, pointing to the lack of young people in their 20s and 30s, settling down to live in West Clare. “While urbanisation will always be a factor, current …

Gardaí fear that a quantity of firearms stolen from a house in Carrigaholt may be used in criminal activity. Clare’s Crime Prevention Officer, Sergeant Joe Downey has expressed his concerns following the theft of a gun safe from the house at Rehy East sometime between midnight on April 17 and 2pm last Sunday afternoon. He added that gardaí will be monitoring online activity as part of their investigation. A grey gun safe, measuring 4’x2’, was stolen. The safe contained a semi automatic Beretta shotgun, two Sako bolt action rifles, a Mauser pump action shotgun and a single barrel Pedretti shotgun.

A grant of € 8,528 has been approved for Coláiste Eoghan Uí Chomhraidhe summer boarding school, in Carrigaholt. Minister of State Pat Breen said this grant will meet the costs incurred in relation to essential security and safety works, as the school looks to welcoming more students to this picturesque area of west Clare this summer. “I will continue to work with Minister Joe McHugh, and in the meantime I very much welcome this interim funding to assist the school for the coming season,” he added. Local County Councillor Gabriel Keating commented,“Coláiste Eoghan Uí Chomhraidhe is a fantastic amenity here in Carrigaholt with huge potential and I am delighted that both Minister McHugh and Minister Breen are so supportive of the school.” The grant is being approved under the Gaeltacht action of the 20 Year Strategy for the Irish Language 2010-2030.