FIANNA Fáil have selected four candidates to stand in the Shannon Electoral Area in next year’s local elections. Sitting councillors Pat McMahon (Newmarket-on-Fergus) and Cathal Crowe (Meelick) will be joined by former mayor of Clare Pat O’Gorman (Cratloe) and Louise Roche McNamara (Shannon). The newly defined electoral area is set to be the most competitive in Clare with eight outgoing councillors fighting for just six seats. The youngest county councillor in the country when he was elected in 2004, Cathal Crowe is hoping to retain his seat for the second time. While four candidates are standing, he feels Fianna Fáil can at best hope to win three seats. “At a minimum I’d hope we’d hold our two seats, but I believe we can gain a third seat. Four would be incredible, but I don’t think that’s realistic.” The re-drawn boundaries, which have brought him into the Shannon area, won’t do him any harm, he believes. “I’m happy with it, but …

The Citroen C4 Picasso has been voted Continental Irish Car of the Year for 2014 by the Irish Motoring Writers Association. The winner was revealed at an awards ceremony in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dublin late last week. The Picasso MPV received 377 votes from the IMWA jurors, ahead of the Volkswagen Golf (364 votes) and the Mazda6 (327 votes). It is the third time that Citroen has taken the overall Continental Irish Car of the Year title, after the Citroen Xsara (1998) and the Citroen C5 (2009). Members of the IMWA awarded their votes on the basis of key criteria including safety, equipment level, fuel economy, comfort, practicality, ride and road-holding. The trophy was presented to Frederic Soulier, Managing Director of Citroen Ireland, by Tom Dennigan of Continental Tyres Ireland, who commented: “The Citroen C4 Picasso is an outstanding car and a worthy winner of our main award. It combines excellent driving qualities with a range of truly …

ON  World AIDS Day 2013, this Sunday, members of  Dóchas, the umbrella group of Irish development NGOs, are urging the Government to maintain its historic commitment to ensuring that HIV services reach everyone in need. The call comes on the back of a UN AIDS report, which states that in spite of progress on the whole, key populations, especially in African countries, are not being reached by the global HIV and AIDS response. “Ireland has always championed the cause of the HIV response internationally, and spent a significant portion of its development aid budget on HIV and AIDS responses. But a new government policy for international development, One World One Future, was launched in May of this year, in which it appears HIV is afforded less of a priority,” said Noreen Gumbo of Trócaire and chair of the Dóchas working group on HIV and AIDS. Ms Gumbo cautioned that vulnerable populations are often impeded from accessing life-saving services. “Just three …

IT’S a tough time for young people in the workplace, with high unemployment and an internship culture keeping many out of full-time employment or nudging them towards emigration. However, Shannon’s Orla Walsh isn’t having that experience, having landed something of a dream job presenting RTÉ’s News2Day programme. She applied in May and has been on TV screens since September, having graduated with a BA in Journalism and New Media from UL in 2012. Speaking to The Clare Champion, she said she has settled well at Montrose and wants to carve out more of a niche for herself with the national broadcaster. She is always pleased when her work gets bumped up and used for the main news. “I absolutely love it. Since I was young, I always wanted to be on RTÉ and I always wanted to present the news. To get the chance to come in, do the children’s news and get such fantastic training is amazing. Every time …

WITH the centenary of the 1916 Rising looming, Clare County Council has been urged to take Hastings Cottage under its remit as part of a project linked to Ireland’s commemorations of the Rising and the War of Independence. Hastings Cottage is one of the most historic buildings in Shannon, having been shown on the 1840 Ordnance Survey Map of the area. However, its construction may have been long before that pre-famine date. During the War of Independence Brigadier General Lucas, a senior British officer, was taken captive and held there. One of those guarding him was Major General Michael Brennan, who subsequently led the East Clare Brigade of the IRA. Last year Dúchas na Sionna held an open day at the building, which was attended by descendants of the General. Speaking at last week’s meeting Councillor Duff acknowledged his own involvement with Dúchas na Sionna and said that the heritage group wouldn’t be able to take responsibility for it without …

A HUGE star in this country since the success of the White Ladder album more than a decade ago, David Gray is on his way to Glór as part of his Irish tour. In October, announcing he would be coming to Ireland for a tour entitled Sounding Out in early December, he came up with a unique method of deciding where he would visit. People were asked to register on his website for tickets and to indicate what county they’d like him to visit. He said the decision on venue would be made either by the strength of numbers or the “compelling eloquence” of the arguments. When the venues were announced, Clare had made the cut on December 10. Speaking about the tour on his website, he said he wanted to play in some of Ireland’s smaller venues. “When you get venues over a certain size, it’s sort of incumbent on me to make more of a show of it …

THE potential danger for children using the Internet is highlighted yet again in the result s of a recently published survey. ESET Ireland, an online scanning provider, has revealed that up to 73% of Irish children are left unsupervised online. So what can be doneto protect kids against online predators and solicitation? In 82% of online sex crimes against minors, the offender used the victim’s social networking site to gain information about the victim’s likes and dislikes. Sixty-five per cent of online sex offenders used the victim’s social networking site to gain home and school information about the victim Predators may seek out children who are participating in attention-seeking behaviours as a way of finding connections with others. Sadly, these kids seeking connection are generally the ones least apt to have a concerned adult that they will feel to whom they feel they can turn, to report solicitation. These targeted kids may also not wish to report the behaviour, as …

  All Ireland Junior Camogie Club Final Myshall (Carlow) 3-9 Scariff/Ogonnelloe 0-8 WHILE Myshall were deserved winners the scoreline is deceiving, as they only led the East Clare women by 1-8 to 0-8 after a minute of injury time. It was still possible that the East Clare side could force a replay, but the Carlow girls had very late goals from the outstanding Ciara Quirke and Olivia Jordan, and Quirke then pointed to leave the gap at ten points. Overall they were the better side, but there is no way that Scariff/Ogonnelloe were ten points a poorer team. The Clare side had fine performances from the likes of Susan Vaughan and particularly Mairéad Scanlon, but didn’t quite have the same quality as the Carlow women, who also won the title in 2012. The most noticeable tactic of the day was Myshall’s mass withdrawal of players into defensive areas, particularly in the second half. At times there was just one attacker …