GREEN Senator Róisín Garvey has called on Clare County Council to “do better” in terms of using funds allocated for cycling and walking infrastructure. The Inagh woman highlighted figures released by the National Transport Authority (NTA) showing that 81.3% of funds allocated to Clare under the Active Travel Fund were not spent last year. “In Clare our local authority was allocated €5,986,000 for walking and cycling projects in the Clare County for the year 2021,” Senator Garvey, Green Party Spokesperson for Rural Development and Enterprise, Trade and Employment, said. “However, according to figures released by the NTA, only €1,113,509 of this was spent. We need to do better for our community. It is understandable that the significant increase in funding since 2019 requires increased capacity, and there have been many additional challenges for our local authority during Covid. However, funding has also been provided for a new Travel Officer role, dedicated to local walking and cycling projects and we need …

AS PART of the PIMA Fest in Ennis, there will be another opportunity to take part in an exciting audio project. ‘Sounding Ennis’, is a generative sound installation by artists Kerry Hagan and Nicholas Ward which will be displayed in Glór for PIMA! Fest on October 15 and 16.  There is an open call to anyone who would like to take part and submissions need to be made by September 5. To take part in ‘Sounding Ennis’ record the sounds around you and submit them to be included in the sound artwork. Record interesting moments in your life and submit them to be include in the sound artwork. Recordings can be of anything in your life – sounds of your kitchen; sounds from your commute; something from a sports event or playground; your grandmother telling a story; sounds from your daily walk; anything you find interesting. Getting involved is free, fun, takes a couple of minutes of your time. The …

THE son of a former Loop Head Lighthouse keeper continues to break records for longevity, recently celebrating his 108th birthday.  One of Ireland’s oldest citizens, Mathew Crowley was born In Askeaton, County Limerick in 1914. The son of James Crowley, Principal Lighthouse Keeper at Loop Head, Matthew’s mother was Amelia ‘Millie’ Crowley (née Colfer) from Fethard-on-Sea in Wexford.  Plenty of hard work and lots of excitement may be the secret to a long and happy life, as Matthew played in a central role in Britain’s war effort from 1939 to 1945, before later working for Irish Lights. Matthew was recruited from Ford Motor Company, Cork City, Ireland, to Ford Motor Company, Dagenham in Essex. With the advent of World War II, aircraft engine production superseded automobile engines, and Matthew’s subsequent designation was as an ‘essential worker’ for the British war effort. With the advent of the Hawker Hurricane fighter airplane, he was initially recruited to the assembly team of Hawker-Sidley …

FANTASY drama ‘House of the Dragon’ is one of the most eagerly-anticipated new releases from HBO and a Tulla woman is centrally involved in the ultra-lavish production.  Ellie Murphy from Church Road, Tulla, is Action Prop Supervisor on the multimillion dollar show. The Game of Thrones prequel has already attracted an audience of 10 million in the US.  Ellie holds a BA in Film and Television from GMIT, where she also met her camera operator husband, John Gogarty. “In college, I was really interested in scripting and in the general work of the Art Department,” she said. “I really like telling a story through the props and through the set. I’m also able to get people with different skills chatting and pulling together and that’s key. I might start off drawing up a sketch and showing that to a concept artist who will then work with a 3D artist, so there are lots of people involved.” Ellie, whose impressive CV …

GORT native Dr James Mahon, one of the first doctors of mobile journalism, recently graduated with a PhD from Queens University Belfast. The broadcast journalist, author and lecturer conducted field research with newsrooms of STV (Scotland), NDTV (India), CBS, WDEF and News 12 (USA) and Lemen Bleu (Switzerland) as part of a pioneering study between 2018 and 2019. James looked at how digital technology is changing broadcasting around the world and found that in many situations these innovations in the workplace were cutting costs for the companies but also having an adverse effect on the older employees. While cost-cutting in most industries causes a stunt in innovation, James found that the opposite was true for journalism, with newsrooms in Switzerland and India switching their studio cameras for phones and even training citizen journalists in how to record videos they could use for their social media platforms. James’ findings were presented at the World Journalism Conference in Paris in 2019 and …

EAST Clare resident Hilary Dully is to make a key contribution to the Write By The Sea 2022 Literary Festival in Kilmore Quay, Wexford, next month. Living in Flagmount for the last 25 years, Hilary has made a huge contribution to the social and cultural life of the area. She will be a much-anticipated presence at Write By The Sea, when she adds her experience to a talk entitled ‘Wexford Women of The Revolution’. A documentary filmmaker, film teacher and writer, Hilary has a family connection to Marie Comerford, a staunch Irish Republican from Wexford, who witnessed events from 1916 to 1923, and was an active supporter of Cumann na mBan. This year, Write By The Sea runs from Friday, September 23 to Sunday September 25. It will be officially opened by keynote speaker Professor Kevin Rafter, Chair of The Arts Council, at 6pm on Friday, September 23. Other key contributors already confirmed include Claire Keegan, Roddy Doyle, Martina Devlin, Liz Nugent, Manchan Magan and Lucy Caldwell. “It’s been said that one of the key …

THE POWER of the Pair in traditional music is the theme of a new series of concerts, curated by musicologist and broadcaster, Feakle’s Paula Carroll, starting at Glór next month. Paula is a presenter on The West Wind on Clare FM and curator of several hugely successful live music initiatives, including Folk Nights at Glór and The Kitchen Sessions, broadcast live from venues across the region. Her latest live series, ’Just the Two’, will feature duos who are in tune musically and emotionally, sometimes linked by bonds of family or friendship. It will explore the power of the pair in music and song. Paula, who has also worked on a number of documentary and oral history projects, believes that if the solo voice is where the authentic expression of traditional music is found, then the duo is where musical communication is at its most creative. When two musicians really understand each other, audiences witness an almost indescribable ‘flow’ between them. …

THE WORLD famous Aga Khan trophy could be making its way to Clare next month to mark the role of a Tuamgraney man in Team Ireland’s victory in the Nations Cup last week. The glittering prize is one of the most sought-after in international equestrian sport and was donated by Aga Khan III in 1926. Chef d’Équipe, Tuamgraney’s Michael Blake, ensured that Ireland took back the coveted cup for the first time since 2015 in after a tense, but thrilling, jump-off against France. An elated Michael, who is also celebrating early qualification for the Olympics in 2024, told The Champion the nail-biting finish was a little tighter than he would have liked. “We did take our foot off the gas at point, but when it came down to the penalty shoot-out, we showed we could put the ball in the back of the net,” he said. On returning to Clare last Monday, one of the first things Michael did was …