Tag Archives: Sixmilebridge

TWO children have been knocked down in the Inis Orga estate in Sixmilebridge, and this week’s meeting of Shannon Municipal District Councillors heard a call from Councillor John Crowe for more safety measures. In a motion to the meeting he said, “I am requesting this Council provide speed ramps/traffic calming measures at Inis Orga, Sixmilebridge, Co Clare. This is a busy estate and two children have been knocked down here.” However the written reply prepared by Senior Executive Engineer Tom Mellett was not particularly encouraging. “The initial 70m of this road would benefit from some form of traffic calming. The Municipal District does not have a budget to cover this type of work and so a funding application for Low Cost Safety Improvements will need to be submitted to Transport Infrastructure Ireland in an effort to obtain adequate funds. We will look to see what avenues are available to us to secure funding.” Councillor Crowe said that he has had …

GARDAÍ in Clare are seeking the public’s assistance in identifying the occupants of a car suspected of being used in two burglaries in different parts of the county. A dark blue Audi A3 hatchback was spotted at the scene of the incidents in Clarecastle and Sixmilebridge. On Friday, January 8 at approximately 8.10pm a car reversed into the driveway of a house in the Hillview Estate, Clarecastle. Two males ran to the rear of the house and broke into the house through the patio door. They were disturbed by the teenage son in the house and left empty handed. This car then went in the direction of Sixmilebridge and at 8.20pm four males wearing gloves and balaclavas smashed in the front door of a house in the Woodview Heights estate. All the rooms were ransacked and a safe containing a substantial amount of money and an Apple IPhone 12 was stolen. Crime Prevention Officer Sergeant Triona Brooks is urging anybody …

By Ronan Judge THE chairman of one of Clare’s biggest GAA clubs has called on the association to do more to stand up for employees who are the subject of online attacks. Chairman of Sixmilebridge GAA, Paddy Meehan, told The Clare Champion that some of the abuse directed at Clare County Board secretary Pat Fitzgerald, is “unbelievable.” Allegations of online abuse against Pat Fitzgerald are the subject of a garda investigation. Meehan says, “Pat Fitzgerald is a paid employee of the GAA and I don’t believe they have stood up for him and I don’t think they have backed him 100%. Maybe if employers start backing people… because you see it nowhere else. There was a case in Kerry there where a former soccer player was being abused and it went to court. It has to stop, this online abuse, people hiding behind computers. That’s where we’re coming from. I have often went to the Clare County Board, had issues …

AS EVENTS in the War of Independence are commemorated across the country, communities in East Clare are preparing to mark the 100th anniversary of the Glenwood Ambush in the New Year. On January 20, 1921 at about 4pm, a motorised patrol of ten armed Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and Black and Tans, travelling from Sixmilebridge to Broadford, approached the back gate of Glenwood House. Waiting for them, concealed behind the walls of the Glenwood estate was a group of approximately 37 armed volunteers, from the East Clare Brigade of the IRA, led by Michael Brennan of Meelick. As the patrol passed by the gates, a fusillade of gunshots struck the patrol. Six RIC and Black and Tans were killed, two were injured and two escaped unhurt. One IRA volunteer was injured. The ambush party then withdrew through the forest and mountains to the East of Glenwood, towards the village of Oatfield. The surviving members of the patrol made their way …

MINISTER for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue has pledged to keep restrictions on mart access under review, following a major outage with the online system, which affected sales nationwide, including those in Clare. Raising the issue in Dáil Éireann, Deputy Cathal Crowe told the minister there had been anger and confusion among local farmers over the issue that arose at the end of last month. “The system crashed for about two hours at Sixmilebridge mart,” the Fianna Fáil TD outlined, “with the result that many of the cattle already in pens in the back yard had to be loaded back onto trailers and returned to their home farms. There was consternation in the marts and considerable anger and frustration among farmers.” The Meelick-based TD said that while sales had managed to resume on the day in question, many farmers were unable to sell their animals. “The mart in Sixmilebridge continued and some sales took place, including the sale of my uncle’s yearlings, …

HISTORY, culture, sport and memory were combined in Sixmilebridge last weekend, when both Scariff and Smith O’Brien’s intermediate hurlers wore black armbands to mark the centenary of the Scariff Martyrs, who were murdered by British Crown Forces on Killaloe Bridge in November 1920. The idea was proposed by the East Clare Memorial Committee, as part of their Scariff Martyrs 100 programme of commemorative events. The group have been commemorating the Scariff Martyrs, Alphie Rodgers, Michael ‘Brud’ McMahon, Martin Gildea and Michael Egan for many decades and are currently finalising plans for the 100th anniversary. According to the historian, Tomás Mac Conmara, who is part of the Memorial Committee, the unique encounter between Scariff and Killaloe, both areas so closely related to the story, presented a unique opportunity. “Our aim is to create as much awareness as possible of the Scariff Martyr’s story and its context in the War of Independence,” Dr MacConmara said. “It was unique that Killaloe and Scariff …

WHILE there may be no national Tidy Towns competition this year, that doesn’t mean that local groups around the county are sitting on their laurels. Quite the contrary. Since lockdown ended, most groups have never been busier and many have seen a bump in membership, because people have been spending more time closer to home. In Kilkishen, the Tidy Towns group is close to ticking another project off its ‘To Do’ list. That is the renovation of the old forge building, which dates back some centuries. “The forge building goes back to the 1700s, but we don’t officially know the date it was built,” Elizabeth Brady of Kilkishen Tidy Towns outlined. “It was built without plaster. It’s across the road from the old blacksmith’s house, which is in private ownership. That’s very quaint and Éamon de Valera visited it in the 1960s. It was a spontaneous thing. He saw it and asked his driver to stop. The locals who had …

Last year’s senior football finalists, St Joseph’s Miltown, the winners, and neighbours and old rivals Kilmurry Ibrickane will lock horns in the opening round of this year’s championship. The repeat pairing was the notable first round draw made by county board chairman Joe Cooney at Clareabbey on Wednesday evening. It is an intriguing tie given that last year a replay was required to determine the outcome. The football championship throws in the August bank holiday weekend. In hurling, kingpins Sixmilebridge face a daunting challenge in the opening round of their title defence when they face old adversaries Éire Óg. In last year’s campaign the sides met in the quarter-final where the Bridge were hard pressed to get the better of a Shane O’Donnell inspired Ennis side and in a game which could have gone either way. No doubt the Townies will be thirsting for revenge when the championship throws in on the weekend of July 24-25-26. Broafdford, who return to …