Breaking News

Eoin Brennan looks ahead at the Clare junior hurling championship which gets underway today With Ogonnelloe showing them the way, the big question is can Banner and Ennistymon follow suit in becoming only the fifth flagship side to win the Junior A Hurling Championship title since the turn of the millennium. The Banner will certainly be ranked as favourites, having welcomed back county senior Shane Meehan from injury for 2022. Even any early banana skins can be recovered from as the 12 competing teams are only reduced to eight by the quarter-final stage. Just as well as the Ennis side are embroiled in a difficult group involving last year’s semi-finalists Clooney-Quin, 2019 and ’20 finalists Kilmaley and Cratloe’s second string that have just come down from intermediate level. 2021 was also noteworthy for Crusheen’s progress to the final while St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield were also back in the mix by reaching the last four stage. It will also be interesting to …

THERE has been a 19.6% increase in the total amount of salaries, expenses and allowances paid by Clare County Council to its elected members over a three year-period, new figures have revealed. Official statistics obtained by the Clare Champion show payments totalling almost €750,000 were paid to 28 Clare County Councillors in 2019. This jumped by almost 20% to a total of €897,002 in 2021 for 29 councillors after the salary for every Clare councillor went up from €17,060 to €21,894 over a three-year period. Former council chairman, Councillor P J Ryan finished at the top of the payments table with a total payment of €40,556 after he received an additional payment of €10,400 for his work as first citizen. Councillor Liam Grant came at the bottom of the table with a payment of €7,464 after he only served on the councillor for part of the year, replacing Councillor Susan Crawford, who resigned her seat last year. Councillor Ryan said …

THE development of a masterplan for Newmarket-on-Fergus is “vital” in preparing for the future growth of the village a meeting of councillors has heard. Clare County Council Senior Planner Helen Quinn has confirmed that the village is the next recommended location for a masterplan exercise within the Shannon Municipal District. Councillor Pat McMahon told a meeting of the municipal district that he has received “a large number of enquiries from individuals, various organisations and voluntary bodies” about the need for a masterplan for Newmarket-on-Fergus. He pointed to the upgrade of the waste water treatment plant, which it is envisaged will allow for the growth of the village including additional housing. “It is vital that parallel to this is a masterplan to plan for the future,” he said. Ms Quinn, senior planner, responded to the motion, “As members are aware a Town Centre First Masterplan is currently underway for Sixmilebridge. “The locations and programming of further town centre first masterplanning excercises …

CONTROVERSIAL legislation which revises the grant scheme for homeowners with defective concrete blocks has been signed into law by President Michael D Higgins.  After the Bill passed through the Oireachtas earlier this month, as distraught campaigners looked on from the public gallery, and others protested outside Leinster House, the President signed the draft legislation at the end of last week. A spokesperson for Áras an Uachtaráin said: “Having considered the Remediation of Dwellings Damaged by the Use of Defective Concrete Blocks Bill 2022, the President has signed the Bill and it has accordingly become law.”  The terms of the new scheme have been sharply criticised by campaigners in Clare, as well as those in Mayo and Donegal where a grant has been available since 2020. While there had been hopes that it would improve on the previous scheme, which covered only 90% of remediation cots, campaigners are adamant that homeowners will still be left seriously out of pocket. Concerns have …

A JUDGE has granted a three-year barring order against a man after hearing that in the past he has taken out a belt to try to whip his wife. At the Family Law Court, Judge Mary Larkin issued the order which bars the man from the family home for three years after hearing a daughter of the couple describing her father as “a very violent person” and said that in the past he has taken out his belt to try to whip her mother. Previously, the man’s wife here alleged as part of her Protection Order application against the man that he has “secretly got married to three of four ladies in Nigeria”. When asked in court by solicitor, Ann Walsh for the woman “what about these wives in Africa?” the man replied “there are no wives in Nigeria – point of correction. I had one wife before her”. The man denied assaulting his wife and daughter but Judge Larkin …

Eoin Brennan looks ahead to this weekend’s Intermediate Championship hurling clashes Round 1 Group 3 Tulla v Ogonnelloe at Glenomra Park Broadford, Saturday 7pm Having watched their fellow contenders mainly swim rather than thread water last weekend, Tulla and Ogonnelloe will eagerly await this initial evaluation of where they currently stand. Only three years ago, two championship divisions separated them but Tulla’s back-to-back attempts to bounce straight back up haven’t exactly gone to plan whereas Junior A champions Ogonnelloe have been relishing their resurrection through the ranks that has included voluntarily stepping up to the Division 2 League in 2022 where they reached the semi-final. Meeting in the middle should be an intriguing match-up but there has to be a greater kick in Tulla. Verdict: Tulla Bodyke v Inagh-Kilnamona at Fr. Murphy Memorial Park Newmarket-on-Fergus, Sunday 1pm Undoubtedly Bodyke would have been keeping a firm eye on how the no-win first versus second team clashes between St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield and …

Halla Eoin, Kilbaha, which served as the parish national school until 1962, has been given a new lease of life and is set for an official reopening this Sunday, writes Mary Keane. The hall has been transformed into a local community hall which incorporates a heritage display. Following a public meeting, held in a dilapidated hall in Halla Eoin in 2018, a committee of dedicated volunteers, with Krystyna Pomeroy as chairperson, was set up to progress the dream and bring it to fruition. It was most certainly the support given by the local Fine Gael county councillor Gabriel Keating along with his pledge of funds from the General Municipal Fund which helped to make the dream a reality. This money, together with a substantial grant from the Town and Village Renewal Scheme enabled the work to begin. The refurbishments were carried out over a period of three years. Most of the work took place during the Covid 19 pandemic. Halla …

A Clare-based mother, who was once homeless on the streets in London, is raising funds for a mobile shower for homeless people in Ennis, saying, “I believe people deserve to be treated with dignity. For homeless individuals, having access to a hot shower is the first step in reigniting a feeling of self worth.” Fiona Faulkes has been living in Ennis for nearly 10 years and regularly helps the town’s homeless, having experienced first-hand sleeping under cardboard in England’s capital. She describes becoming homeless as feeling like “the whole world is going to just collapse”. However support from those working with people on the streets in London as well as others who were homeless helped her get through it. She is now hoping to raise €10,000 through an online GoFundMe campaign to buy a caravan and convert it to give people living on the streets here in Clare a wheelchair accessible place to wash and dress. “This is just a …