Growing up in a twin community straddling two counties has helped a World Dance Championship entrant to take part in Rose of Tralee selection conventions in successive years. Tara Brady, Ballina, will participate in the Tipperary Rose selection in the Anner Hotel on March 24, a week before she will be competing in the World Dance Championships. Last year, Ms Brady (23) participated in the Clare Rose competition following encouragement from her uncle, Eddie O’Gorman, Killaloe. “It was a fabulous experience. I met so many intelligent, brilliant, funny girls. I would probably have never met them only for the Clare Rose because they all came from different backgrounds and age groups,” she said. “I am still in contact with some of those girls today. I would encourage any woman who is thinking about entering the Rose competition to go for it. “You learn a lot about yourself and it is a great confidence builder. The whole emphasis is on the …

A Killaloe Sailing Club member is on the crest of a wave preparing for the second time to become the first Irish person to complete an around-the-world race known as the “Voyage for Madmen”. Pat Lawless now has a driving desire more than ever to try and win the 2026 Golden Globe Race, after he had to retire from the 2022 race when his self-steering failed 1,200 nautical miles west of Cape Town. With a heavy heart, after repairs he sailed Green Rebel back home to Ireland. Without a self-steering system, he was unable to achieve his dream. He could have made repairs and continued the voyage under Chichester Class as a one-stop circumnavigation, but decided to retire. “I felt terrible shame because of all the support I received. You learn from shame because you don’t want to feel it again. I was heartbroken, I was trying to fix it. When I got into Cape Town everyone was so nice …

    An Ardnacrusha third-level student scooped €3,000 as part of a prestigious prize to help her academic pursuits. Eva McMahon (21) was one of the three University of Limerick students from the Faculty of Science and Engineering who received prestigious awards from Regeneron Ireland. Ms McMahon, Kate Storan from Dooradoyle and Anna Feenan from Carrigaline were presented with their awards at a special ceremony in Regeneron’s Industrial Operations and Production Supply (IOPS) facility in Raheen, Limerick recently. Students from the University of Limerick were given the unique opportunity to compete for awards in Quality Control, Manufacturing, or Engineering, depending on their specific field of study. The students were tasked with the exciting challenge of developing a project based on a topic provided by Regeneron. They presented their work to a group of business representatives, followed by an interactive question and answer session, allowing them to engage directly with Regeneron colleagues. The three award winners received a paid internship at …

Ballina Handball Club has installed a new defibrillator costing an estimated €1,600 on the outside wall of their handball alley for the benefit of the club and residents. This latest initiative is part of the club’s drive to increase the provision of facilities for the benefit of the local national school and the local community. The first part of this drive was the introduction of dads and lads as well as mothers and others in the handball alley to encourage people to engage in a fun physical exercise without the commitment of training for or entering a competition. This started about three weeks ago and already it is proving very popular with people who never played handball previously. Teaming up with Defibs for Life in Nenagh, the club contacted this organisation who was delighted to supply a defibrillator on the proviso they would receive a donation. Club Chairman, Paddy Collins explained a defibrillator is essential for a club and the …

  Clare people have decided by an overwhelming majority to reject proposed amendments in the twin Family and Care referendums. The 39th Family Referendum was rejected by more than a two-to-one majority. The No vote totalled 26,574, 67% while 12, 573 voted Yes, 33%. There was also a decisive rejection of the 40th Care Referendum. The votes cast against the proposal came to 28,979, 74%. In total, 10, 132 voted Yes, 26% giving a No majority of 18,848.   The result is an embarrassing verdict for all the political parties, the Government, and organisations who advocated a Yes vote in the two referendums. There were 90,101 people living in Clare who were entitled to vote, but less than half of them chose to do so. The official turnout in Clare was expected 44% after 39,65o people cast their vote. There were 503 spoilt votes giving a valid poll of 39,147. This result means Clare people have decided to reject eight …

Early indications suggest Clare voters have voted No in the two Referendums on Friday. In total, 98 out of the 177 boxes have been opened in the count centre at Woodstock Hotel, Ennis. The preliminary turnout is expected 45%, which is subject to change once all the votes are counted. Counting staff are currently reconciling the number of votes in every box with the number recorded by the presiding officer to make sure they tally. Staff will start counting all the votes when the reconciling process is completed. It is expected that a final result will be announced after 3pm this afternoon.       Dan Danaher

Concern has been expressed about the cessation of respite care at Ennistymon Community Hospital for two separate five-month periods due to staffing shortages. Councillor Liam Grant (GP) has expressed his disappointment that staff shortages have led to the ending of respite services from August 2022 to January 2023 and from August 2023 to January 2024. The palliative care bed and five respite beds are currently available for admission. Councillor Grant asked for a comprehensive report on the services provided at Ennistymon Community Hospital and HSE plans for future development at an HSE West Forum meeting. The Green Party Councillor also requested figures for how many beds are available for long-term, respite and palliative care, the occupancy rate and whether were there any staffing issues affecting what the hospital can provide. Welcoming the submission of an application to the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) to register six new beds, Councillor Grant said he hoped staffing issues don’t arise at the …

The increase in the volume of red tape and bureaucracy involved to comply with environmental agricultural schemes has been criticised by a new Clare farm leader. Veteran IFA East Clare member, Stephen Walsh was unanimously elected unopposed as the new Clare IFA chairman following the organisation’s annual general meeting in the Woodstock Hotel, Ennis on Monday night. In an interview with The Clare Champion, Mr Walsh warned the form filling that is required for farmers has got a hundred times worse than when former IFA President, John Dillon railed against the bureaucracy farmers had to endure. “Someone is going to have to have a look and find out what is this all about. We have to get professionals now to fill out our forms. There are so much criteria and red tape if we make a mistake it is too serious,” he said. “Farmers have to pay farm planners up front. We were promised money under the ACRES scheme last …