Tag Archives: restoration

CHRISTMAS at Oatfield in East Clare will see a double celebration, as the community marks the completion of works to restore the village’s famous Barn Church, which dates to the 1600s. The careful restoration, upgrading and development of what is believed to be the oldest church in the Killaloe Diocese, has taken almost a decade, and is the result of huge dedication on the part of the local community. Since 2013, thanks to intensive fundraising, essential repairs have been carried out on the protected structure. These include works on the doors, bell tower, storage building and foot-paths. Other work has been done on erecting piers and gates at the car park entrance, as well as the full refurbishment of the kneeling boards in the church. In 2020, local man Donal Ryan created and installed a replica of the original, historical altar, which was removed in the 1960s. In the last couple of weeks, with the completion by Lenihans contractors, of …

MEMORIES of cultural contests of years gone by will be rekindled at the West County on November 21. Settling Old Scórs is being organised by Kilkishen’s John Torpey. He said he wanted to revisit the heyday of Scór in Clare. “I’m organising a celebratory concert of Scór from the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s and the millennium. Scór was a huge thing, probably one of the greatest social items that the GAA ever came up with,” he said. In the early days of the competition, there was incredible interest in it, not least in his own part of the county. “Christy Curtin from Miltown Malbay came up with a notion that there should be a social aspect to the GAA. Coming out of that, all of the clubs in the county were contacted, including myself and Robert Frost in O’Callaghan’s Mills. A few of us met in Kilkishen on a Saturday night and we said ‘you sing a song, you do this, …

Ennis Friary, the old Franciscan Friary on Abbey Street has now re-opened for the 2014 tourist season. And visitors to the historic site this Easter will have a chance to see the results of recent restoration works of the medieval ‘passion panels’. Last year saw a record number of both locals and foreign tourists visiting the heritage site. And so far this year there has already been an increase in visitor numbers since the Friary opened at the beginning of the month. The Office of Public Works, who manage the site, are encouraging local families as well as visitors to the town to go along during the Easter holidays to witness the ‘passion panels’ These panels were carved for a royal tomb built by the McMahon family in the 1400s and show in exquisite detail various scenes of story of Easter including Christ’s betrayal, crucifixion and resurrection. There has also been renewed local interest in the site due to the …