Breaking News

ENNIS students have raised more than €4,000 for charity, while also highlighting barriers to education which have left some youngsters ‘Locked Out of Education’. Gaelcholáiste an Chláir Transition Year students recently presented the St Vincent de Paul with a cheque for €4,259.45, the proceeds of a fundraising and awareness raising campaign last December. The campaign highlighted that many young people face being ‘Locked Out of Education’ because of rising rents and other costs while also raising funds for the St Vincent de Paul and was organised as part of their Young Social Innovators project. As part of their fundraising, the students camped out for a night at the school, and operated the St Vincent de Paul shop in Ennis for a day. Gaelcholáiste an Chláir Transition Year Co-ordinator Martina McNamara has expressed appreciation to all of those who supported the students in their fundraising efforts and awareness campaign. She explained that the students were moved to act when they discovered …

Ryan Taylor tells Ivan Smyth he is happy to test himself to stake his claim in a strong panel RYAN Taylor would be forgiven for looking warily over his shoulder as the next batch of talented young hurlers received call-ups for pre-season training. The Clooney-Quin stickman has not enjoyed the typical route of progressing straight from the U21 set up in to the senior panel. Instead after being a key part of the Clare side that reached the U21 Munster final in 2015, it was only in November 2017 that he earned the call up to the senior set up. Helping his club reach the county final in 2017 earned him a place in Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor’s squad for the following year but he struggled for game time initially. When Brian Lohan took over towards the end of 2019, he handed Taylor a chance with the Clooney-Quin hurler snatching it with both hands. He started all of Clare’s …

ILLEGAL dumping at Clare Abbey, one of the county’s most historic sites, has been described as “soul destroying”. A meeting of the Ennis Municipal District this week saw Councillor Clare Colleran Molloy ask that the Clare Abbey Task Force Group be recalled and a meeting organised to address a number of concerns raised about the national monument. She described “ongoing” problems of fly tipping and anti-social behaviour at the abbey on the outskirts of Ennis saying a meeting of the taskforce is needed. A recalled meeting of the taskforce should also focus on accounting by the municipal district as to the recording of “dumping” complaints lodged, and action steps taken to address these complaints. The meeting would also help identify concrete proposals to improve “this longtime ongoing unacceptable situation”. The councillor outlined that a previous meeting of the taskforce was attended by representatives of the OPW, council and local interested bodies. She said that illegal dumping in the area is …

Dan Danaher on the comprehensive victim impact statement of Aimee Foley following her father’s conviction and sentencing for raping and abusing her An Ennistymon woman who was sexually abused and raped by her own father has described him as a “monster, paedophile and an animal”. In fact, Aimee Foley outlined in her Victim Impact Statement read out in the Central Criminal Court calling Michael O’Donoghue an animal is “an insult to the animal kingdom because no animal on the planet could have and would have done what you did to me”. “You stole, spat on and destroyed by soul, my childhood. You stabbed me in my heart with your betrayal, your malice. You have ruined me. “I hope you are happy knowing you broke your own child. I won’t allow this though. I won’t allow your manipulation to keep me restrained, to overpower me. I will beat you. I will learn to overcome what you did to me. I will …

LAHINCH’S Ruairí McKiernan will host a special event this weekend to celebrate the feast of St Brigid. The event, on Saturday afternoon, will hear from a Nobel Peace Laureate, as well as a man the Dalai Lama described as a ‘hero’ at a Virtual Féile Bríde event. Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Richard Moore will join the conversation which will explore issues relating to peace and justice in the modern world. The virtual Féile Bríde event, hosted online last year for the first time, was a huge success with hundreds joining from around the world and while it is expected to return to Kildare next year, this year the virtual option remains very popular. To date, registrations for Saturday’s event have come from people in Brazil, Guatemala, South Africa, North America, and Vietnam. McKiernan is a Lahinch-based campaigner and the author of Hitching for Hope. He will moderate the event involving special guest Belfast’s Mairead Corrigan Maguire. Ms Corrigan Maguire won …

JOHN Conlon’s return from injury and subsequent move to centre back was one of the big positives in a 2021 campaign of near misses, writes Ivan Smyth. However, when the Clonlara man suffered what he describes as a “weird sensation” in his knee after taking part in a tackling drill the Tuesday after his side’s come from behind win against Whitegate, another spell on the sideline loomed. This led him to undergo keyhole surgery on his knee as he sat out the rest of his side’s campaign with Clonlara bowing out of the group stages before winning the Senior B Championship. “It was hard looking on. It was frustrating to get injured because we were going well. We lost out on getting to the quarter finals which was annoying because we were close again. It was a weird sensation when I got the injury first. I knew it wasn’t the previous injury (ACL). All went well with the surgery. Brian …

Dan Danaher speaks with Aimee Foley who waived her right to anonymity following her father’s conviction and sentencing for raping and sexually abusing her AN ENNISTYMON woman, who was sexually abused, raped and traumatised by her father for years, is seeking changes in the sentencing regime for people convicted of domestic violence, rape and serious sexual assault. On December 13, Michael O’Donoghue (44) from Ennistymon was sentenced to five years for brutally raping and abusing his only daughter. Setting a headline sentence of 12 years, Mr Justice David Keane reduced it to seven years, taking mitigating factors into account and then suspended the final two years. O’Donoghue, with an address of Colmanstown, Ballinasloe, Co Galway, pleaded guilty to 31 counts of sexually assaulting Aimee Foley, one count of raping her and one count of producing child pornography. In her comprehensive victim impact statement, she described her father as “a monster, a paedophile, an animal”. The Director of Public Prosecutions has …

Eoin Brennan speaks to Ardscoil joint-manager Niall Moran ahead of Saturday’s Harty decider Niall Moran has been there from the start of the Ardscoil Rís’ hurling evolution. After breaking new ground throughout the knock-out stages in the late noughties, the Limerick City college finally reached a first Harty Cup Final in 2010 albeit that it took three attempts before finally getting over Thurles CBS in an epic decider series. It would be the first of five Harty Cup triumphs in as many finals, an enviable record highlighted by contesting nine of the last twelve semi-finals. However, while the school do have a superb recent tradition and winning know-how, joint-manager Moran is quick to point out that it’s firmly uncharted waters for the current side. “Given the last two years, it’s brilliant for the whole school to be back in a Harty Final. It’s new territory for all these boys though as it’s their first time in a Harty Final, no …