Tag Archives: Kilrush

TWO Clare projects will share just under €7.5m in grants from the Rural Regeneration and Development Fund it has been announced this morning. Kilrush will benefit from a grant of €3,536,919 which will go towards the development of the Kilrush Maritime Training Centre; while the Inis Cealtra (Holy Island) Visitor Experience tourism project in Mountshannon will see an injection of €3,906,252 in funding. The Kilrush grant will be augmented by a further €700,000 contribution from Clare County Council, according to Deputy Joe Carey. The training centre in the west Clare town will provide a range of specialist mandatory maritime training courses, creating 28 jobs and catering for 1,200 trainees each year.  The Creek Lodge in the marina area will be purchased and renovated, to include retrofit and upgrades to the layout. Deputy Carey hailed the investment as bringing “an immediate and tangible boost to the local economy” in Kilrush. “The development of a training and research base for the offshore …

CALLS are being made to revitalise the inks between West Clare and North Western France, on the 40th anniversary of the Kilrush-Plouzané twinning initiative.  Councillor Ian Lynch proposed that the local authority would reinvigorate the long-standing connection with the Britanny town, which shares historical links to St Senan. The Independent member outlined to the recent meeting of the West Clare Municipal District (WCMD) that the twinning had been established in 1982, under Kilrush Town Council’s auspices. Links between the two towns had been unearthed in the late 1970s by a Breton historian who was looking into the history of Plouzané. The settlement, close to the major French city of Brest, looked at the origin of the name ‘Plouzané’, which means ‘church of Zane’. He then established that Zane was the Irish monk, Senan, whose home was Scattery Island. St Senan established churches in Cornwall and Brittany  “As this would be the 40-year anniversary, now is the right time to reinvigorate the twinning,” …

KILRUSH is the town in Munster with the highest rate of commercial buildings that are vacant. The town has had an issue with vacancies for some time and regularly features at the top of the periodic Geodirectory issued reports on vacancies. The most recent one showed that in the second quarter of the year there was a vacancy rate of 25.1% at Kilrush, the highest in Munster and the fourth highest in Ireland. However, on the positive side, the rate of vacancy in Kilrush was nearly 1% lower than at the same time in 2021. Jack Kelly, who has a well known business in the town, said that there has been a fairly good recovery since Covid-19 restrictions were raised. “I would say things are picking up, but Kilrush is always behind the curve on that, it is coming back, but slowly coming back. There have been a few extra units taken up around the town. “Has it changed much …

Last Friday week proved to be an emotional day for Gerry O’Malley, as he closed the door in Kilrush Post Office for the last time after 51 years’ service to An Post, including 15 years as a contractor. Kilrush Post Office in Francis Street, which was built in 1957, is now closed to the public for counter services apart from undelivered mail as retail services have transferred to SuperValu in the town. This building will still be used by local postmen. “A big crowd turned up to see me retire. We were told to close at 4pm because of the transition. We took photographs had a party in my house afterwards. It is a big change not having to get up for work in the morning,” he said. In an interview with the Clare Champion, Gerry said the new buzzword in An Post is co-location as they want post offices to be located in existing business premises. The 69-year-old father-of-two …

U14A League final Fergus Rovers 4-9 Kilrush 3-9 (AET) Extra time was required to separate Fergus Rovers and Kilrush in the U-14A League Final at Kilmihil on Monday last before Fergus Rovers emerged to claim a thrilling contest by a goal. In a first half that produced five goals it was Fergus Rovers that had the brighter start kicking the first three points, two from Sarah Hickey while dominating possession in the opening quarter. Kilrush equalised with a goal from Avamay Broderick while Ali Talty put Fergus Rovers back in front with her first goal. Kilrush goals from Jessica O’Sullivan and Caoimhe Griffin, a good save from Rovers goalie Kate Griffin and a second Ali Talty goal left the half time score Fergus Rovers 2-05 Kilrush 3-01. In the second half Fergus Rovers Maeve Clancy kicked a goal and a point adding to her first half tally of two points while the impressive Kilrush full forward kicked five points and …

GARDAI are appealing for the public’s assistance following a stabbing in Kilrush over the weekend. On Saturday night, May 28, a man in his mid-30s presented at Kilrush Garda Station with a stab wound to his lower back. He outlined that at 10.50 p.m. at Crawford Street, Kilrush, he was stabbed from the rear by an unknown male. He was removed by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick for treatment. If anyone was in the area of Crawford Street around this time and witnessed this incident or anyone that may have dash cam footage gardai are asking them to contact Kilrush Garda Station on 9080550.

THE introduction of a new bill aimed at discouraging use of single-use items could be exploited to help detect crime in Kilrush, according to a local councillor. The Ministry for Justice, through An Garda Síochána, may be allowed to take charge of the CCTV infrastructure within Kilrush Town for the prevention and detection of crime, operating and maintaining the cameras to safeguard and protect the public. This is possible due to the new Circular Economy Bill, which was published on March 30 and aims to discourage the use of single-use items to improve the process for allowing recycled materials onto the market – in fact, it defines the circular economy for the first time in Irish domestic law. Councillor Ian Lynch stated his wish to use this bill as a foundation for the control of CCTV in Kilrush by the authorities, because of the various instances of dumping, fly tipping and excessive littering in the town. At a meeting of …

TWO men from opposite ends of the world convened in Kilrush last week to discuss the possibility of shooting a film based in the west Clare town. Joe Riley, now living in Sydney had his autobiography (initially known as Ghosts of Kilrush and now as Life in Kilrush) published a number of years ago and he was in west Clare to meet Chris Cusack from Grafton Productions in Hollywood. “What’s happened is the film rights, I sold them to an American company in Hollywood. The film producer has flown from LA to here, and I’ve come from Australia to here,” said Joe. While there is no indication yet as to when production might start, he said that a script has been written, various other preparations made and an overall investment of in the region of one million dollars made. “I haven’t come from Australia for the fun of it, and he hasn’t come from LA for the fun of it,” …