IT is just six weeks until 2013’s Miss Clare will be crowned and organisers are calling on young women around the county to enter before the St Valentine’s Day deadline.

Daniel O’Connell has always been known as a pacifist and opposed to force of any description. Indeed it is sometimes felt that it led to the failure of the Repeal Movement, when he backed down after the government banned the final Clontarf rally. It also led to many of the Young Irelanders becoming disenchanted with him in later years. However such might not always have been the case.

THERE was widespread disappointment at the weekend at the news that Ennis would not be the host venue for Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in 2014. The announcement was made on Saturday by the Ardchomhairle of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, with Ennis losing out on an estimated €35 million boost to the local economy.Sligo were named as the host town for the All-Ireland Fleadh in the ballot at Comhaltas headquarters in Dublin. Ennis has once again missed out on its bid to secure the event, which would have attracted an expected 300,000 visitors to the town.  The working group behind the Ennis bid said the outcome has come as a “huge disappointment”. The working group was established under the auspices of the Ennis-based Abbey Branch of Comhaltas over two and a half years ago to make the case to host the prestigious event.The group, chaired by Micheál Ó Riabhaigh, comprised representatives of Comhaltas, State agencies, local authorities, An Garda Síochána as well …

A celebration of more than three decades of service to Knockanean National School by former school principal Pat McNamara will take place this weekend.Mr McNamara officially retired as principal of the school in November of last year and this Friday a retirement mass and celebration will be held in his honour in Roslevan.According to Mr McNamara, his 33 years at Knockanean have given him great memories that will always stay with him. “I will miss it, there’d be something wrong if I didn’t after so many years there. But the most important thing is that I can honestly say there wasn’t a day that I didn’t enjoy going in,” he said.Originally from Tulla, Mr McNamara came to Knockanean having previously taught in Waterford and Limerick. He recalled, “When I started out, it was a two-teacher school, just going to a three-teacher school, now it’s a 14-teacher school. It has certainly changed a lot in the preceding years. “There were 70 …

With the wider Broadford community upping the ante as regards their campaign to have the local post office reopened, it has emerged that four groups have expressed “serious interest” in operating the facility if An Post refuses to do a u-turn on the closure.Public outrage has been strong since An Post shut down the post office in early November but since then an action group has prepared a submission, delivered to An Post earlier this week, supporting calls for a reopening of the post office.Action group chairman, PJ Mason, confirmed to The Clare Champion that approximately 1,000 people had signed a petition while 300 families in the Broadford postal districts had returned a questionnaire calling on An Post to reopen the post office as soon as possible.“They have pledged their willingness to do as much business as possible through Broadford Post Office with a strong demand for banking services. Four groups have also expressed their interest in operating a post …

Special Olympian James Murphy from Corbally is living his Olympic dream.James, who attends the Daughters of Charity Service in Lisnagry, set off from Dublin Airport earlier in the week to take his place at the 2013 Special Olympics World Winter Games, which run in Pyeongchang in South Korea until next Monday. In the opening day of the floorball competition on Wednesday, Murphy sparkled for the Ireland team, scoring six goals in their 11-1 win over host nation, South Korea.Team Ireland comprises of 14 athletes. Six of the athletes will compete in the Alpine skiing Slalom, Giant Slalom and Super G competitions while a team of eight, including James, takes part in the floorball event. Team Ireland is accompanied at the Games by a management team of volunteer coaches and medical personnel who have been working closely with the athletes over the past number of months to ensure they are fit and ready to take on the world in South Korea.The …

SHANNON Chamber has selected former chief executive of Shannon Development, Kevin Thompstone, as its new president.He succeeds Damian Gleeson of Grant Thornton, who held the position for two years.Mr Thompstone said he was honoured to take up the position and when he spoke to the Clare Champion on Tuesday he acknowledged that it’s a difficult time for some of the Chamber’s members. “It’s not unique to this region or unique to Ireland but we’re in the middle of a pretty deep economic crisis that’s effecting nearly every part of the world. That’s just the reality of business life at the moment but having said that, Shannon Chamber has a good cross-section of members across industrial sectors and people are making a good fist of things. It’s the nature of business, you have an upward cycle and a downward cycle and we just happen to be in one of the trough periods at the moment.”Mr Thompstone lives locally and he left …