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STUDENTS in St Anne’s Community College have pivoted to video in order to put across their message about stopping animal cruelty, writes Dan Danaher. Transition Year students had planned to deliver a power point presentation about animal welfare for primary school students in Killaloe and Ballina. However, they opted not to proceed with these plans due to the high incidence of Covid-19 and are now planning to film students giving an overview of their research project in a new video. Rebecca Rogers, Daniel Spaight, Amy Reilly and Dominik Maslanek are in the media group for their Young Social Innovators project. Having surveyed students in their class, the four teenagers discovered most of them had an animal at home and animal welfare was a topic that really interested the majority of the class. As part of their research for this YSI project, the students looked at Irish case studies of animal cruelty and are making posters to raise public awareness around …

THIS TUESDAY, February 8, is the 15th anniversary of the opening of the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Centre. Built over two years at a cost of €32 million, the award-winning design nestles into the surrounding countryside for minimal visual disruption. Our picture slideshow tells the story of the massive undertaking it required first to make space for the centre and then to restore the landscape to its former pristine state. And also how it was necessary to cater for the ever increasing visitor numbers in a responsible and environmentally sensitive way In 1978, the regional tourist board, Shannonside Tourism, constructed a stone building housing gift shop, tea rooms and toilets on the sire of the old stables build by Cornelius O’Brien. By 1978, 100,000 visitors were coming to the Cliffs of Moher each year. Over the next ten years this number will increase to 250,000 and the volumes continued to rise through the 1990s. The Cliffs of Moher are a …

Sean Stack has been appointed as the new manager of the Sixmilebridge senior hurling team, it was confirmed at their club committee meeting on Monday evening, writes Eoin Brennan. The iconic All-Star defender returns to the helm in his native club for the first time since 2004 and is joined on the backroom team by All-Ireland senior winners for both club and county Michael O’Halloran and Niall Gilligan along with Jim Fitzgerald and Adrian Chaplin. Sixmilebridge, winners of five of the last nine Clare Senior Hurling titles, exited last year’s championship at the quarter-final stage to Éire Óg, this ending a historic bid for a three-in-row of Canon Hamilton crowns under Tim Crowe and Davy Fitzgerald. Stack’s vast managerial experience, that includes guiding three clubs (Sixmilebridge 1984, Toomevara 1993 and Na Piarsaigh 2011, 2013) to provincial glory in three different decades is accentuated by a glittering playing career. he won an All-Star in 1981, back-to-back National Hurling Leagues in 1977 …

IN CORK parlance, Billy Murphy might known a ‘scobe’, but Shane Casey, the actor who plays him in hit comedy Young Offenders, will be on his best behaviour when he visits North Clare at the weekend. Shane shot to fame in the Cork-based comedy and became a cult hero after serenading a hijacked bus with a blistering cover of The Frank and Walter’s ‘After All’. He will be in Lisdoonvarna on Saturday night (February 12) to officially launch the new teenage disco at The Hydro Hotel. The pandemic put a spanner in the works for the planned disco back in 2020 and organisers are thrilled that it’s all systems go. “We are delighted that Shane was available for this launch –  we had to postpone this event in March, two years ago, when the pandemic hit – so we are delighted it’s back,” said Marcus White, Managing Director of the Hydro. “There is a huge pent-up demand for teenage discos from young people …

POOR air quality events in Ennis are driving trolley numbers up at Limerick’s A&E an Ennis councillor has said. Councillor Johnny Flynn called for “urgent action” to be taken on what he describes as a “human health and environmental hazard”. Councillor Flynn was speaking at the monthly meeting of the Ennis Municipal District where he renewed calls for a Clean Air Strategy for the county capital in the wake of “concerning ongoing poor air quality results for Ennis from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)”. He said he has become “frustrated” with the ongoing issue. Councillor Flynn pointed out that Ennis and Clare rely on the only Level 3 hospital in the region for 24 hour A&E in Limerick, and outlined that studies have shown that poor air quality has a “huge impact” on hospital admissions. The councillor welcomed plans to install a number of new sulphur dioxide monitors in Ennis. However, he insisted that more is needed, “so people can …

WHILE Shannon Airport has faced numerous crises over the last 20 years, one of its steady sources of revenue has been the ongoing business provided by the US military. How clearly this military use meant the alignment of Ireland with US policies has been hotly debated, with many protestors arguing it has left Ireland implicated in numerous human rights abuses, while successive Governments have argued neutrality is not compromised. Every Government that has allowed the US military use has been led by either Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael, but as time goes by it looks like that may not happen after the next election, with opinion polls showing Sinn Féin are likely to be the biggest party. The party is a staunch critic of the US military use of the airport, and while other parties have raised concerns before entering Government, if Sinn Féin does enter government it is very likely to be as the senior rather than junior party …

The importance of locally-produced food has been underlined by the pandemic, says St Tola’s Siobhán Garvey tells Conor Clohessy FROM fresh crottin to classic logs, Greek style to hard, Siobhán Ní Gháirbhith and the team at Inagh Farmhouse Cheese have been producing St Tola Goat Cheese for well over 20 years. Near the village of Inagh, St Tola was originally established by Meg and Derrick Gordan on their 25-acre farm in the early 1980s; since 1999, Siobhán has been continuing their legacy on her own farm, which she inherited from her parents. Siobhán recalls buying goat’s milk from the Gordans growing up, because her family would use it as a home treatment for the asthma that her sisters Róisín and Sinéad suffered with from an early age. She said: “I was a primary school teacher in Galway and my parents were also teachers, leasing out our land to neighbours. I thought it was a pity we weren’t using the land. …

COUNCILLOR Joe Garrihy has called on Clare County Council and partners Fáilte Ireland to focus as a priority on the regeneration and investment in the towns and villages of North Clare included in the Burren Discovery Trail, writes Conor Clohessy. The towns of Corofin, Kilfenora and Lisdoonvarna are key, Councillor Garrihy stated, to the survival and sustainability of living communities, heritage and services associated with their adjacent rural catchments. He claimed they are in urgent need of focus and investment while the current opportunities of funding and objectives of the “Our Rural Future” are available. Councillor Garrihy added that while he supports and appreciates all of the beautiful projects happening around Clare, he worries that most are south of Ennistymon, and has a deep concern for the state of anything north of that. “Unfortunately, you’ll find a lot of town centre dereliction in these areas, and a lot of identity that has been lost for many, many years due to …