GLOWING tributes were paid to a Clonlara resident for her invaluable contribution to her local community during a recent presentation. The legacy left by Theresa Gleeson (70) was aptly summed up by Clonlara Community Creche deputy manager, Laura Woods when she stated:“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” Ms Gleeson was given a photograph includes images of St Senan’s National School, the local church and Clonlara Community Crèche as symbols of the indelible mark she has left on the local community. The mother-of-two was on the national school board of management for 25 years, she volunteered for the local church for years and has spent 38 years working in childcare. The crèche caters for 74 children that are looked after by 21 staff. In 2001, Ms Gleeson was named the Clare Person of the Year during this period when she was honoured at a function in …

A NATIONAL coaching body has served up a provincial award to a local coach in recognition of his club and charity work. Wesley O’Brien has been named Munster coach of the year by Tennis Coach Ireland. Wesley introduced a coaching programme in Killaloe Ballina Tennis Club, trains visually impaired people to play tennis as part of Blind Tennis and has shown hundreds of refugees in various countries how to use a racquet during his “Hit and Hope” charity trips abroad. In an interview with the Clare Champion, Wesley said this award was unexpected and hopes it will help him to secure new sponsors for his Blind Tennis initiative. While Wesley has received funding from different Sports Partnerships and Vision Sports, he believes it is not sustainable to continue to rely on these sources in the future. Recently, he travelled over to Wrexham to assist Marguerite Quinn, who competed in the United Kingdom Blind Tennis Championships against players who had more …

PAYMENTS totalling almost €13,000 weekly were paid by Clare County Council to Michael Houlihan and Partners for legal services over the past three years, new figures have revealed. Councillor P J Kelly has expressed concern about the amount of money spent securing legal advice over the last three years after tabling a motion seeking a breakdown of this expenditure. In 2019, Michael Houlihan and Partners were paid €853,323 in total, which included €513,208 for revenue and €340,115 for capital projects. This fell to a total of €574,392 in 2020, which broke down to €333,184 on Revenue and €241,208 capital accounts a year later. The figure for 2021 was very similar – €577,740, which included €327,190 on Revenue and €250,549 on Capital accounts. Councillor P J Kelly told a council meeting on Monday he was unaware that the contract with the authority’s existing legal provider was finishing at the end of the year or that a new one was about to …

TWO Clare children with Cystic Fibrosis who have a rare genotype are being “discriminated against” due to their exclusion from availing of a transformative “wonder drug”, a local councillor has claimed. The HSE has been in negotiations since May with Vertex about giving access for a therapy called Kaftrio for 35 young children with a specific genetic condition. This is already available to other Irish patients under an existing deal. Councillor Mary Howard described Kaftrio as a “wonder drug” that stops the progression of Cystic Fibrosis in the body. She warned that many of the 35 children are not well and have been regularly hospitalised, with more hospital visits expected to increase as the winter progressed. Speaking at a council meeting on Monday, the Fine Gael Councillor said adults and those 12 and older have been receiving Kaftrio. Last May, she recalled all children who were older than six were supposed to receive this drug. “There are 175 children with …

ALARM bells are ringing over a 34% increase in Clare’s homeless presentations for the first six months of this year compared with previous figures for full years. New statistics obtained by the Clare Champion revealed there were 94 adult single homeless presentations in Clare from January to June 2022 compared to 70 for twelve months in 2019 and 69 for 2020. The highest total was back in 2018 when there were 127 adult single homeless presentations. At the end of the first quarter in 2022, there were 59 adults in emergency accommodation which included 12 families, four couples with dependent children and eight individuals with dependent children). The total number of dependents was 23. During 2021, there were 1,959 presentations, 626 new and 1,333 repeat, and 29 new households were placed in accommodation in homeless services. Clare County Council’s homeless expenditure has increased dramatically from €561,032 in 2018 to €2.192 million in 2019 to €2.2395 million in 2020 and €2.223 …

CLARE people must be at the forefront of all decisions made in Clare County Council, according to the newest co-opted councillor. Councillor Tom O’Callaghan, who formally became a council member at a meeting this week, has identified housing, health, issues affecting trade and business as well as the rising cost of living as the key challenges that need to be tackled over the coming years. The chairman of the Independent Postmasters’ Group identified Clare’s tourism amenities, sport, Shannon International Airport, heritage, music and agriculture as some of the key positive aspects in the county. “Details in the new draft County Development Plan 2023 to 2028 and at municipal district level set out lofty objectives. I believe we have an important role in achieving those goals, working and weaving the plans of local communities and groups in with the overall strategic plans to secure the best outcome for Clare.” Mr O’Callaghan said he was extremely privileged to be co-opted onto the …

HOSPITAL campaigners have claimed there is no major improvement for patients attending the Emergency Department in University Hospital Limerick (UHL), despite the HSE’s “expert intervention”. Clare members of the Mid-West Hospital Campaign participated in a protest outside Ennis Hospital on Monday to highlight the crisis in ED unit. Similar demonstrations also took place in Navan, Drogheda, Cavan, Mullingar, Limerick and Nenagh. The protesters read out some of the recent survey responses from the public following the initiative undertaken by the Mid-West Hospital Campaign. Group member, Noeleen Moran told the Clare Champion they decided to go ahead with this protest, despite subzero temperatures because there is no progress being made to address the crisis at UHL. “The Petitions Committee has not received a response from the Department of Health yet in relation to the group’s petition calling for the upgrading of casualty facilities in the region. “The HSE’s response wasn’t even aware that the Deloitte report was already published and stated …

CLARE County Council is working at full capacity to grit 17% of the road network in the county, local councillors have been told. Senior engineer, John Leahy confirmed at a council meeting on Monday priority routes were salted twice a day and during the weekend with the help of ten drivers in recent days. Mr Leahy said 25 pick up trucks came into the yard on Monday morning and left with salt for areas in municipal districts. “It is not possible to cover the whole road network. We cover the national primary, national secondary, most regional roads and busy local primary roads. “We are operating at full capacity. We emptied a full salt barn in the last week, but we have adequate salt stocks in place for the cold snap. It is a difficult situation over the last few days because of weather conditions. “We are salting 17% of the road network,” he said. Councillor Joe Garrihy said rural roads …