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SURFACE rehabilitation Works are taking place on the N18 Limerick to Ennis Road starting this weekend. Works are due to start on Sunday and are expected to last for approximately 10 to 12 weeks. A 50kmph speed limit will be in place for the duration of the works. The works will result in lane closures, in both directions, between the Junctions of R471 Sixmilebridge and Bunratty East. The Motorway Traffic Control Centre is advising motorists travelling to or from Bunratty to be aware that access to and from the N18 Northbound will be closed from Sunday, September 29, and diversions will be in place.

CLONLARA artist Ann Daly is currently staging her second solo exhibition in Kilmallock, County Limerick, until the end of September. The exhibition, entitled God’s Country, features a selection of paintings that capture the beautiful landscapes and sceneries of the Liscannor and Doolin coastlines. As well as exhibiting at the Friarsgate Theatre, Kilmallock, Ann will be participating in Culture Night at Contact Studios, the studio space she shares with 14 other artists close to St Joseph’s Hospital on Mulgrave Street in Limerick City. On Culture Night, the studio will be open from 5pm to 10pm to afford members of the public a chance to meet and greet the artists in residence and view their works. Ann is among a number of Clare artists based at Contact Studios. Speaking about her current exhibition, she explains the featured paintings mainly encompass scenes from Liscannor, a place she is all too familiar with. “I paint mainly Clahane, Liscannor, Doolin, which is where I am …

MUSIC will be piping around the streets of Tulla on October 5 and 6 as the village prepares to host The Tulla Pipe Band and friends for a music festival with a difference. Originally scheduled to take place on September 28, The Pipe Fest was rescheduled to ensure nobody missed their opportunity to get to the All-Ireland final replay. Organised by The Tulla Pipe Band, the festival was trialled last year with low-key events and it was decided to roll it out as a fully fledged festival this year. It will not only celebrate local pipe music but other pipe bands will also participate and will encompass Irish dancing and traditional music. The weekend will commence with The Tulla Pipe Band and guests, The Thomas McDonagh Pipe Band and members of Ceoltóirí na Sionainne in St Joseph’s Secondary School on the Saturday at 8.30pm. Part of the proceeds from the concert will be donated to the Grainne Murphy Memorial Weekend …

DRIFTING in and out of consciousness, John Cahill couldn’t let go of his dream. His bicycle lay mangled in a Killaloe ditch, an increasing crowd surrounded the Cappa man and the pain seared through his body. Still his scrambled thoughts zoned in on London. “I was lying on the road for about 20 minutes waiting for the ambulance to come,” the An Post employee recalled on Wednesday more than a year after his accident at a triathlon in Killaloe. “The first thing I did was move my fingers and toes. Once I could do that I knew then that one day I’d get back on the bike. Even when I was lying there the first thing that went through my head was London and would I be able to make it.” John is just back from the World Triathlon Championships in London, so yes, he definitely made it. Along with David Brew, also from Cappa, John represented the West Clare …

THE wilds of the Antarctic and Arctic will be all too real for an audience in Glór in Ennis on Thursday, as wildlife film maker and photographer Doug Allan invites them to join him in an exploration of his life in these Polar opposites. Speaking to The Clare Champion, Doug explains Clare is his first stop on a whirlwind 10-date tour of Ireland and he is looking forward to sharing his experiences. “I began as a marine biologist and I worked a bit as a scientist but more as an assistant diver – this was way back in the early ’70s, and then I got this fantastic job in the Antarctic working as a diver. Between 1976 and 1986, I had spent a lot of time in the Antarctic; at one stage up to two and a half years without coming back. Really it was in that time that I gained a lot of experience about snow, ice and cold …

Alfa Romeo’s breathtaking 4C sportscar has been launched although it will be a short while before it hits these shores. Styled in the same vein as the larger 8C Competizione, it has to be one of the best looking cars to be introduced by any marque. The mid-engined car is powered by a new, aluminium turbocharged petrol engine. Although it might seem small at just 1750cc, it develops 240 bhp and 350Nm of torque, both records for specific power for this size of engine. The engine is twinned with the latest TCT twin clutch semi-automatic gearbox and Alfa’s DNA driving mode selector, which in this application also comes with a race mode. The chassis is made of carbon fibre, endowing the car with great strength and light weight. The weight of the chassis is a remarkably low 65 kgs, while the car as a whole has a dry weight of 895 kg and a 40:60 front:rear weight distribution. 0-100 km/h …

  THE Clare Champion’s recent All-Ireland hurling final supplement, A Rising Tide, has received a ringing endorsement from none other than the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins. The President’s praise for the production came at an awards ceremony in Áras an Uachtaráin last week for the inaugural Get-Involved Community Get Involved campaign, organised by the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) Local and Regional and the Regional Newspapers and Printers Association of Ireland (RNPAI). Broadcaster and environmentalist, Duncan Stewart chaired the judging panel for the competition. An avid sports fan, President Higgins made special mention of the Clare hurlers and commented that The Clare Champion supplement, A Rising Tide, was the best he’s seen but he had only managed to get halfway though it. He received an appropriate reminder of his cradle days, when he was presented with a framed copy of The Clare Champion front page for the day of his birth in April 1941. Mr Frank Mulrennan of …