THE number of people signing on in Clare increased slightly in the first month of the year.

WHILE Saturday’s Lift the Burden, Jobs not Debt march in Limerick is being organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, all are welcome to attend.

EDITORIAL OUTRAGE at the cutbacks in the health service, in terms of the cap on staff replacements, proposals to slash wages for new nurses and capital expenditure cuts was mollified to some degree in Clare this week.

THE apology by Gerry Adams for the murder of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe in 1996 should be welcomed by everyone. It should not be dismissed merely as a stunt by Sinn Féin in its efforts to gain respectability.

DEPUTY Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan has used Class A drugs, such as cocaine and LSD, in the past. This was news in the Irish media this week. He stated that his experiences were mainly negative and that people should be aware of the potential pitfalls of using such substances.

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  FROM his neat, pink house in Legard South, Paddy Casey can hear the waves thundering towards the shore in Spanish Point. As a young man, there wasn’t an inch of the beach that he didn’t know and for 16 years he utilised that knowledge to save at least 10 lives between 1944 and 1962. “I’m on the run in to 90,” he replied, when the question of his current year count was broached.About 10 years before Paddy became a lifeguard in Spanish Point, a local committee set about collecting money, with a view to buying basic lifesaving equipment. Paddy has, in his possession, a document put together by Jane Hurley, who details the tragedy which led to the establishment of a lifeguard station on the scenic West Clare beach. “The Indian summer of 1934 tempted many bathers into the calm waters of Spanish Point. Saturday, September 15 was a particularly pleasant day. A sister from the local Convent of …

THE Bunratty International Chess Festival has been held every February for the past 20 years, initially in The Shannon Shamrock Hotel and now more recently in the Bunratty Castle Hotel.