INFORMATION regarding the Shannon smell needs to be made available to the public, a number of town councillors claimed at their meeting on Tuesday night. Councillor Cathy McCafferty put forward a motion seeking a number of documents regarding the issue, including “copies of any statements, reports and correspondence between Clare County Council, the EPA, HSE or any other agency in respect of this odour problem, its origins and effects”. She said she wants local people to be better informed about the situation. “The reason I have raised this issue is to have this matter discussed in public so that the people in Shannon might be better informed of what has been going on. “At our meeting on October 24, an EPA representative told how complaints started in September. He remarked that 20 complaints were received on one day alone. A joint investigation commenced and the treatment plant was identified as the most likely source of the problem. We were told …

THREE Clare voluntary groups will be hoping to emulate the success of organisations like The Clare Crusaders, Kilnaboy Youth Club, Tuamgraney and other Clare communities in previous years by being named a category winner at the IPB Pride of Place awards ceremony in Derry on Saturday. Clare County Council has this year selected An Sean Dún Housing Estate in Roslevan, Mountshannon Community Council and Miltown Malbay Tidy Towns to participate in the annual All-Ireland competition, which aims to recognise and celebrate the vital contributions that community groups make to society. In July, representatives of the three groups made presentations to the competition judges, Blaise Tracey and Declan Nelson. Speaking ahead of Saturday’s awards ceremony, Mayor of Clare Councillor Joe Arkins said, “The council’s decision to nominate each of the three participating groups is recognition of the hard work they have undertaken for the good of their communities. The communities of An Sean Dún, Mountshannon and Miltown Malbay can be justifiably …

CRUSHEEN nurse Fiona Curtin will celebrate New Year’s Day in East Africa sharing her medical skills in the overcrowded maternity unit of Arusha’s main hospital in Tanzania. The Drumbonniv woman is currently studying for her post graduate degree in midwifery studies at Queens University, Belfast. Having qualified as a nurse at NUIG, Fiona spent two years working in Reading, near London, before moving to Belfast. “As part of the course I have the amazing opportunity to travel to Tanzania for a four-week placement to work with women and children in dire need of obstetric and midwifery care,” Fiona explained. “There is a link between Malawi and Queens University and that is where a lot of people go to volunteer. I wanted to go to go to a different country, not where everyone else is going. I did some research and Tanzania has one of the fastest growing populations in the world and also has high levels of poverty. I found …

CLARE County Council has access to more than 3,000 tonnes of rock salt to treat the county’s roads during the coming winter. A third of the available salt stock is currently in storage and has been held over from last winter, which was one of the mildest in recent years. An additional 2,000 tonnes of salt is available to the council to draw down when required from the National Roads Authority (NRA) and the Department of Transport (DTTAS). Council staff have already participated in their first road treatment operation of the winter.  The surface temperature dropped low enough last weekend for a number of trucks to be dispatched from the local authority’s maintenance facility at Beechpark, near Ennis. Senior engineer, Tom Tiernan confirmed that the availability of more than 3,000 tonnes of salt was the same as what was made available to the council during last winter. These stocks will be used to treat strategic national, excluding the motorway network  …

A PETITION yielding 596 signatures lobbying for the construction of a footbridge in Quin has led a local councillor to call on the council to abandon plans to provide pedestrian access on the existing bridge in favour of developing a footbridge. Councillor Sonny Scanlan, who last week announced his intention to retire from local politics, said the last item he would like to secure for his community before he hangs up his boots is a footbridge. He explained that over the last two months, a petition calling for a footbridge to be constructed has been issued to locals and has secured 596 signatures. Although a part eight planning application has already been granted for works on the existing bridge, Councillor Scanlan is calling for this to be scrapped. “What I want them to do is to forget about that and to put in a part eight for a footbridge, instead of the footpath on top of the bridge. There would …

WHITEGATE resident and volunteer with NGO Amurtel, Didi Ananda Prama Driscoll returns to Haiti this December to help continue her work with those displaced by the 2010 earthquake that devastated Port Au Prince. This is Didi’s third year working with Amurtel in Haiti and on this trip she will spend two months in Port Au Prince, where she is hoping to develop a project growing spirulina, a super protein food. “There are still 250,000 people in camps. One and a half million lost their homes in Haiti during the earthquake. We work mainly with women and children and we still have schools and our children’s homes have expanded. We now have two children’s homes, one in Port Au Prince and also another on the border with the Dominican Republic. We still have programmes with women, where we do microfinance. That’s where we give them a little money and they see what they can do with it, for example if they …

AN audience of 600 already have their tickets for what will be one of the most unique experiences for traditional and classical music lovers on the Clare stage. Premiering The Clare Concerto, composed by Dave Flynn, The Clare Memory Orchestra, which has grown to an ensemble of 70 musicians, will perform for one night only in Glór. In what is a fusion of the classical orchestral structure and traditional aural learning, the performance has already sold out. Featuring musicians from classical and traditional backgrounds, as well as those who have experience in both, this is the first orchestra of its kind and was the brainchild of Dublin native and North Clare resident Dave Flynn. He outlined how the ambitious project came about. “I had the idea for a long time and it kind of originated from working with Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill in 2006, when I was commissioned to write a piece for them with a classical violinist. From …

THE selection of eight members of Clare’s All-Ireland winning hurling side on the 2013 All-Stars team has rounded off a memorable year for the Banner County David McInerney, Brendan Bugler, Pat Donnellan, Colm Galvin, Conor Ryan, Tony Kelly, Podge Collins and Conor McGrath have been named on the team, which is completed by three players each from Cork and Dublin and one from the Munster champions, Limerick. The awards will be presented at a function in Croke Park this Friday night, when the identity of both the senior and young hurler of the year will also be revealed. The young player award is certainly in the bag for Clare, as the only nominees are Tony Kelly, Podge Collins and David McInerney.  Kelly and Collins are also in the running for the senior award, along with Cork goalie Anthony Nash. The players make the choice of player of the year. The number of Clare men named in this year’s team equals …