A PAINTING of Richard Harris by Clare artist Thomas Delohery is to be used as the promotional image for the inaugural International Richard Harris Film Festival, which runs from December 4-6. Originally from O’ Callaghan’s Mills, Delohery now lives in Melbourne, Australia. He said he was very honoured to be asked to do the art work for the festival. “I think this is the perfect way to honour the late and great Richard Harris, who was a very proud Limerick man but who saw Kilkee as his spiritual home, so much so he named his house in the Bahamas, Kilkee House,” he said. His image was projected onto King John’s Castle last week when the programme for the film festival was launched. “As Richard was a local man and had gone to such heights in his career, for that reason I saw him as an inspiration. I have been very fortunate that I have got to know the Harris family …

FIGURES published by the parish show  634 people have died in Shannon since 2000, with 2013 the year when most deaths were recorded. Speaking to The Clare Champion, parish priest Fr Tom Ryan (pictured) said the town’s demographics are maturing. “Maybe 30 years ago, there would be 10 baptisms every Sunday but now, the town is maturing and it’s an ageing town. That’s reflected in the amount of grandparents in the town and even great-grandparents, which wouldn’t have been there in the past.” It’s not that long ago since the cemetery was put in place at Illaunmanagh. “The cemetery opened in 2001 and a number of years later, an extension was sought for it. That’s filling up as well but there’s still plenty of space available.” The parish was founded on Christmas Eve of 1967, although people had been living in the town for some years before, as part of the Newmarket-on-Fergus parish. The number of deaths per year are: …

SHANNON has been plagued by foul odours for months and an audit report carried out by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) into the town’s wastewater treatment plant says much of the blame lies with inadequacies at the plant. The audit was carried out in mid-October by John Feehan and Joseph Hunter of the EPA, with consultant John Kilgallon. Their report had seven main findings, one of which was that the plant was “generating significant hydrogen sulphide odours”. Hydrogen sulphide generates a strong smell similar to that of rotten eggs. Other findings were that the plant was designed and built without preliminary treatment facilities and that the plant is “currently achieving very little in terms of wastewater treatment’. The report’s sixth finding is that “The problems identified at the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) must be addressed and if any residual odour sources remain, they can then be more easily identified and remedied”. The final one stated, “Urgent priority measures need …

CLARE FM’s John Cooke has won a national media award for his contribution to health journalism. Mr Cooke, who presents Morning Focus on the regional station, was presented with the Consumer Broadcast Radio award at this year’s GSK Irish Medical Media Awards. RTÉ reporter Rita O’Reilly and producer Tara Peterman were jointly named Journalists of the Year, while Joe Leogue was named Young Journalist of the Year for the story he broke for the Corkman newspaper. Irish Times journalist Kitty Holland received the Story of the Year Award for her investigative report into the death of Savita Halappanaver. Mr Cooke was presented with his award a programme with three Clare women on the topic of ovarian cancer. During the emotive programme, Tulla woman Marie Phelan and Ennistymon’s Margaret Barry outlined how they had overcome ovarian cancer. Oncology nurse Ann Murphy from Ennis also detailed her experience of the fourth most common cancer facing women, outlining statistics from the Irish Cancer …

JUST over €36m has been paid to Clare farmers under the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) and Disadvantaged Area Scheme (DAS) in recent weeks. The figures, which have been obtained by Clare Senator Tony Mulcahy, show that 5,817 of 6,000 SPS applicants in Clare have received payments totalling €23.765m since October 16, with the remaining 183 applicants due to receive their payments in the coming weeks. The percentage of SPS applicants paid to date is higher in Clare (96.95%) than in any other county. According to Senator Mulcahy, the percentage of payments made to Clare applicants under DAS is also the highest in the country at 85.65%, with 5,349 out of 6,245 farmers having already received combined payments of €12.254m. Senator Mulcahy stated, “The issuing of payments under the Single Payment Scheme has occurred earlier this year as the result of a European Commission’s decision in September to accommodate beleaguered farmers, who are experiencing difficulties due to inclement weather conditions. “The …

WHILE there has been some reluctance to publicly state short term targets for a recovering and restructured Shannon Airport, a report by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport states that the aim is to have 1.9 million passengers in 2014. That would mean an increase of just over 500,000 on 2012, meaning around 10,000 extra people per week would have to be using the airport in 2014. It also notes the more long term target of 2.5 million passengers by 2018, a figure that Leo Varadkar said has to be met to give the airport a sustainable future. The report containing the information was compiled by the Oireachtas Joint Committee of the Oireachtas and is on the General Scheme of the Shannon Aviation Services and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2013. The committee that prepared the report is chaired by Mayo TD John O’Mahony. Fourteen other TDs, one of which was Clare’s Timmy Dooley and six senators are also on it. One …

  Youghal 1-16 Whitegate 0-8 WHEN Ian Fahy was ruled out with appendicitis, it represented a serious blow to Whitegate, and while they stayed in contention for a long time, the Cork side were rampant in the final quarter. At least two more Whitegate players had been sick in the run up to the game, but in fairness Youghal were short two regular starters and had been missing four for the draw. Sunday was a terrible day in Fermoy, heavy rain falling both before and all the way through the match, although the pitch held up as well as could be expected. Speaking afterwards, Whitegate manager David Considine said he didn’t want to put the defeat down to the poor health of some of his charges. “I don’t want to be making excuses, we hurled as hard as we could,” he said. The first half was quite even and entertaining with some very good spells of hurling. Whitegate, who actually …

THE company at the centre of a “very serious” data protection breach, relating to more than 1.1 million people, has declined to comment on the future of 50 jobs in Clare. Loyaltybuild, an international firm based on Station Road in Ennis, was the subject of what it described as “a sophisticated criminal attack”, which resulted in the full payment card details of more than 376,000 customers being taken. It also involved the details of an additional 150,000 clients being potentially compromised and the names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses of 1.12 million clients throughout Europe also being taken. Management at Loyaltybuild were unavailable on Wednesday to discuss the breach and a spokesperson for the firm declined to address questions in relation to the company’s future at this time. Gardaí have confirmed that the breach has been reported to the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation. Separately, the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has launched an investigation into the breach, …