A garda from Clare and a Clare-based garda collected national bravery awards on Friday for saving lives in separate dramatic river rescues. Garda James Hanley of Ennis Garda Station and Garda Joe Hayes of Henry Street Garda Station in Limerick both received certificates of bravery and bronze medals at the National Bravery Awards in in Farmleigh House. At 8pm on January 13 last, Garda James Hanley and a colleague responded to a 999 call indicating that a woman was seen in the River Fergus in Ennis. When they arrived at the scene, they found the woman hanging onto a life buoy in the river. As she was unresponsive to their calls, Garda Hanley climbed the river boundary wall and waded out to her. The woman was conscious but very frightened and weak. Garda Hanley managed to keep the woman’s head above water and continued to reassure her until he was able to pull her out of the water with the …

A woman and her two children had a lucky escape on Thursday when the car in which they were travelling left the road at a notorious corner on the main Ennis to Ennistymon Road. The crash, just after midday, brought to seven, the number of accidents at Ballyknock, Kilnamona in the past 11 days according to Clare County Councillor James Breen. Councillor Breen, who lives in the area, has called for immediate action on the road to prevent further accidents. “That is seven crashes there in 11 days. I have looked for a meeting with the National Roads Authority, about that stretch of road. I think it is very, very serious and I am hoping the NRA will afford me a meeting. They haven’t come back to me yet. I want remedial work done there immediately, either the road realigned or something done before someone is killed there,” he said. The crash at lunchtime on Thursday involved a single car, …

CLARECASTLE will host one of the most eagerly awaited games of the 2013 Clare Senior Football Championship when Cratloe and Éire Óg meet in the county semi-final on Sunday. Perhaps it should be rephrased slightly as ‘one of the most eagerly awaited games of this week’. Since the football championship re-started after the All-Ireland hurling final, there has been a desperate rush to get it over with. The same applies to the club hurling, which shows the GAA’s prerogative lies with the inter-county scene. Still, the winners of this game won’t worry about the big picture. They won’t have time, as the county final is scheduled for the following weekend. It seems like another age when Éire Óg knocked reigning champions Kilmurry Ibrickane out of the championship on September 15 in Kilmihil. Their 2-5 to 0-10 win reverberated around Clare football for a day or two but has been all but forgotten about since. Had Éire Óg another game within …

AN innovative marketing strategy has been unveiled by the independent Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) to dramatically increase the stay time of thousands of visitors to Clare. SAA chairman Rose Hynes said the new Shannon Group will market the airport and the former Shannon Heritage visitor attractions, such as Bunratty Castle, King John’s Castle in Limerick and the shop in the Cliffs of Moher, in a far more coherent way. She said the group is also focused on increasing the length of stay for visitors travelling to Clare; trying to move away from the reliance on day trips to the big attractions. Boosted by the Ryanair announcement of the delivery of 300,000 extra passengers by the end of next year, with eight new routes starting next April, Ms Hynes said airport managers would try to sell tickets for their visitor attractions when they are marketing the airport abroad. “We are going to do a variety of things here at the airport. …

Cratloe 2-6 Kilrush 0-7 NOWHERE near as fluent as in their 11-point defeat of Cooraclare a week earlier, Cratloe did enough to hold off a limited Kilrush and secure a county semi-final place against Éire Óg in Clarecastle on Sunday. Kilrush set themselves up to limit Cratloe’s attacking options and to close the space into which they sought to run. To a degree, this policy worked, in that it kept Kilrush competitive. Yet only Jim Young, of Kilrush’s forwards, managed even a single point from play. The Kilrush free-taker kicked five points from dead balls, while early substitute Paddy Clancy was their only additional point scorer. Playing with a strong breeze in the opening half in Clarecastle on Sunday, Cratloe were somewhat lucky to lead 1-4 to 0-2 at half time. Ten minutes before half time, a long delivery from Seán Collins evaded Kilrush goalkeeper Tony Burke and dropped in. Fergal Lynch, playing at full-forward, had made a run that …

YOUNG people from the locality headed to Guingamp in France, Shannon’s twin town, last week to discuss local democracy and how they can get actively involved in local politics. The exchange, as part of an intercultural link with Guingamp, Aue in Germany and Kadan in the Czech Republic, looked at how democracy works at a local level in each of the towns and the issues that affect young people in the area at a local level. Five young people from Shannon and the surrounding area headed up the trip, with the support and company of Mayor of Shannon Greg Duff and Clare Youth Service Youth worker Aoife Guilfoyle. In advance of the trip, Councillor Duff commented, “The emphasis will be very much on the young people taking part in this exchange as they explore their place in local politics and I want to do everything I can to facilitate their interests and learning. I see this very much as a …

SEVEN-year-old Andrew Burke from Whitegate has had his wishes come true, as he received a number of special surprises on Saturday. The Make a Wish Foundation arranged for Andrew’s wish of owning a puppy to come true. Andrew suffers from neuphratic syndrome, a condition affecting the function of his kidneys. Andrew was put forward for the wish by his play specialist in Temple Street Children’s Hospital, Olive Kenny. As part of this, Andrew had to fill out a wish book, which asked him things such as if he could be anyone in the world, who would he be or if he could meet anyone in the world, who would he meet, as well as other things such as his favourite restaurant, which he said is the Half Barrel in Whitegate. He filled out every bit of it himself and when it came to choosing his number one wish, he said he wanted a puppy. Mum, Leanne, explained what happened on …

COMEDIAN Kevin McAleer has been talking nonsense for 30 years and shows little sign of stopping. One of the founding fathers of modern stand-up, he has influenced a whole generation of comedians in Ireland and the UK. On November 8, he comes to Patrick’s Bar in the Market, Ennis after a very long absence from the Clare stand-up scene. “I haven’t been to Ennis for a long time, too long…some hotel back in the mists of the 20th century I think, but the best pint of Guinness I ever had in my life was in Ennis with a friend around 1993. We both cried. “It was a very emotional moment. We still reminisce fondly about it. Maybe I can reconstruct that moment when I am there,” he said. The Tyrone ‘space cadet’ shot to fame back in the 1990s with his regular appearances on RTE’s Nighthawks, leading to sold-out nationwide tours and the best-selling EMI video Turn it On. He …