Tag Archives: letter

ALMOST a year after a revised grant scheme for homeowners with defective concrete blocks was agreed, campaigners say thousands are still “trapped” in unsafe houses.  In a strongly-worded letter to the housing minister, action groups in Clare, Mayo, Donegal and Limerick, have pleaded for an update on when the new scheme will be live. In the correspondence seen by The Clare Champion, action group leaders, including Crusheen’s Dr Martina Cleary, said “homeowners are trapped in unsafe, unhealthy homes because they have no other option”. The letter, copied to all Cabinet members, has also sought an assurance that enough temporary accommodation will be provided when homeowners need it. “Given that thousands of affected homeowners will have to avail of the scheme in the years to come, and there is a national crisis in availability of rental properties all over Ireland, how is the Dept. [sic] of Housing working with the Local Authorities in the counties affected to ensure there will be …

ENNIS businesswoman Mary Kelly, who operates a stationery and card shop on O’Connell Street, was rather surprised last week when a letter posted in Dublin 45 years ago dropped through her letterbox. The letter was addressed to the late Philip Reidy, the former owner of the premises. Along with his wife, Agnes Henchy Reidy, he ran a newsagency business from the building. Mr Reidy passed away in 1977. “The envelope was perfectly intact and the address was written in a nice fountain pen. The postal mark was April 7, 1971,” Mary told The Clare Champion. “I didn’t open it because there is a son of that man living in Celbridge. He said to me ‘open it’ but I said ‘no, no you have to open it’. It felt like it could have been a relic or a ten shilling note,” Mary mused. Celbridge-based Philip Ó Ríada, who is currently abroad, insisted however that Mary open the letter sent to his …

FEAKLE woman and Ireland’s oldest person in history, Kathleen Snavely celebrated her 113th birthday in Syracuse, New York State, on Monday but earlier this year she took time out to correspond with pupils at Feakle National School. Mrs Snavely was chosen by Róisín Quilligan and Siobhán Tuohy as part of their Flat Stanley project in school. This project is based on the Flat Stanley books, written by Jeff Brown Stanley, which sees the Flat Stanley character travel the world in envelopes. It began in 1994 in Ontario, Canada, when Dale Hubert had the idea of having children create their own Flat Stanley paper cut-outs and mailing them to friends and family around the globe, in order to foster authentic literacy activities for kids and get them excited to write about Stanley’s adventures. In Feakle, pupils have written to and received responses from a number of famous people, including President Michael D Higgins, Channing Tatum, Ryan Tubridy, Henry Shefflin, Brian Gavin, …

A PROTEST letter, which included claims about the “detrimental effect Inland Fisheries Ireland’s current regime” is having on recreational angling, was delivered to the organisation’s CEO, Ciaran Byrne, before a recent conference. More than 60 anglers attended the protest, including retired ESB fishery staff and anglers from West Limerick, Kerry and Ennis, before the EU Mulkearlife Conference, at the Castle Oaks House Hotel in Castleconnell. Two security guards manned the gate of the hotel with a crowd barrier, for what the organisers described as a very civilised protest, organised by the Limerick and District Anglers Association (LDAA). Attendees and speakers from Europe came out to talk to the anglers but IFI management stayed out of sight. The LDAA claimed it was completely “snubbed” by both MulkearLife and Inland Fisheries Ireland for this conference. “The association did not even receive a reply or acknowledgement to applications submitted by two of our members to attend, despite being the oldest and largest stakeholder …