The Gathering Ireland 2013 initiative has attracted approximately 10,000 international visitors to Clare, injecting up to €5 million into the local economy during the first six months of the year.

MY heart is with the turf-cutters in their bid to cut turf where their fathers and grandfathers cut it and in spite of a Government and an EU ban on the activity. My head, however, is with the Government on this one. It has no choice but to enforce the ban; if they fail to do it, we, the ordinary taxpayer, will be forced to pay out up to €9m a year in fines to Europe.

  “If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.” – Thomas Pynchon. (1937 – ) THERE was a piece of reassuring news this week. It was the first in what has felt like a long time. The Irish High Court rejected the application of the United States for an arrest warrant for the fugitive Edward Snowden. The former intelligence contractor has been identified as the main source of leaked classified information and has been, we are told, holed up in a Moscow transit lounge for the last few weeks. The rejection was not an act of rebellion but a straightforward adherence to a point of law. The judge stated that because the US had failed to indicate where the alleged offences took place, he was compelled to reject the application. This incident was a timely reminder that, in fact, there is still a place for the rule of law in contemporary geopolitics. …

A NEW era for health services in Clare dawned earlier in the week after the old emergency department in the Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Ennis, now known as Ennis Hospital, was split into a Local Injury Unit (LIU) and Medical Assessment Unit (MAU).

ANGELA’S Ashes: A Musical comes to Limerick’s Lime Tree Theatre this month for a four-night run.

MUSICIAN Siomha Brock has organised a fundraising night of music and drama next weekend “to give something back” for the support she received from the Clare Youth Service in the beginning of her own musical journey.

THE Island Music Club presents a unique performance next week when it welcomes a Japanese acoustic duo to The Highway in Crusheen.