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SINCE she was born eight months ago little Imogen Brigdale has lit up the lives of her family, and now she has helped to light up the community of Newmarket-on-Fergus. Residents in Newmarket-on-Fergus have been treated to an illuminating Christmas display this holiday season. The lights were recently switched on by Imogen and her parents Jane O’Leary and Alan Brigdale. The tiny tot has proved an inspirational character having repeatedly defied the odds since her post-natal diagnosis of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH). The light display is thanks to a collaboration between the Rise Global Foundation and community development organisation, Obair. Located in the Fairgreen near to the village church, the Christmas tree and light display was unveiled at a fun-filled event earlier this month. David McCourt, who is the founder of Rise and the Chairman of National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company responsible for designing, building and operating the new national infrastructure under the National Broadband Plan in partnership with …

HOUSE prices in Clare in the last three months of 2021 were 14% higher than the previous year, latest figures have highlighted. This compares with a rise of 5% seen a year ago. The average price of a home in Clare is now almost €220,000, 84% above its lowest point. National housing prices rose by 7.7% on average during 2021, according to the latest Daft.ie Sales Report. The average price nationwide in the final quarter of 2021 was €290,998, up 0.6% on the third quarter of 2021 and just 21% below the Celtic Tiger peak. While 2020 saw similar rates of inflation across the Irish housing market, significant regional differences emerged during 2021. The smallest increases were in urban areas. In Galway city, prices rose by 1.6% during the year, while in Dublin, prices rose by 3.4%. In Cork city, prices rose by 5.5% while in Limerick and Waterford cities, the increases were 6.4% and 7.5% respectively. But outside the …

WORKS aimed at connecting parts of Ennis with walking trails are set to begin next year the Ennis Municipal District has confirmed. Funding totalling €950,000 has been secured by the council under the government’s Active Travel grant scheme. The plans were detailed at a recent meeting of the Ennis Municipal District where Councillor Johnny Flynn had sought an update on the Connecting and Co-Creating Ennis project which was undertaken in 2020 by the Intelligence Unit (IU) of the School of Architecture at UL. The project was undertaken on the invitation of the Director of Service of the Ennis MD executive Carmel Kirby, in conjunction with the elected members. The councillor outlined that this project looked at Connecting, by re-joining parts of Ennis physically and socially and Co-Creating, getting citizens and visitors actively involved in the development of Ennis. Councillor Flynn described the document as “a very important piece of work”. The students and academics who worked on the project spent …

FEARS have been expressed the new Omicron variant of Covid-19 may lead to staffing shortages in hospitals early in the New Year. Dr Catherine Motherway, a leading intensive care consultant at Limerick University Hospital, has voiced concern in a recent interview that the highly transmissible new variant will have a very significant impact on staff. The National Ambulance Service (NAS) meanwhile has put private operators on standby in expectation that high numbers of staff will be lost to Covid, coupled with an expected surge in call-outs in January. Case numbers soared nationally to 11,182 on Christmas Eve, with Omicron as the driving factor. The variant now accounts for 83pc of all cases. There were 38 confirmed Covid-19 patients in ICU at UHL on Tuesday, which was the third highest in the country after 51 were recorded in Beaumont Hospital and 38 in Tallaght. The HSE’s Performance Management and Improvement Unit has confirmed 12 of these confirmed cases are being treated …

A nursing union has called for the curtailment of elective treatments in University Hospital Limerick to reduce the expected spike in overcrowding in the Emergency Department over the coming weeks.   The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has called on the HSE to publish and implement a Plan B for dealing with the capacity crisis that is escalating within the public acute hospital system. The INMO has requested all activity except urgent emergency care to be curtailed in the public hospital system. INMO General Secretary Phil Ní Sheaghdha expressed concern about the high numbers of patients presenting to Emergency Departments across the country. “From experience we know that if there are 287 patients for whom there is no bed in a hospital on December 30th, we know that figure will be tripled in early January. It is time now to scale back all activity within our public hospital system to emergency activity only. “Our public health service is too small …

THE fundraising and water safety awareness efforts of two Ennis business women have seen them recognised with a national award. Danielle Kenneally and Chantell Keane were the recipients of the Water Safety Ireland Community and Social Responsibility award at their national awards ceremony earlier this year. Danielle’s brother Jack was just 15 when he and his friend Shay Moloney lost their lives after getting into difficulty swimming in a disused quarry in 2018. Danielle and her best friend Chantell co-founded home fragrance business Wix and Wax in 2020, and this year they decided to donate a month’s profits from a specially created ‘Daisy snap-bar’ to WSI in memory of Jack. The daisy has a strong significance to the Kenneally family as Jack kept a daisy on the back of his phone, and that’s something that Danielle holds dear. A water safety tips leaflet was included with every fragrance bar sold. A total of €2,500 was raised from the sale of …

CLARE homeowners affected by pyrite are being encouraged to explore their legal options in accessing redress, as part of a series of ‘pathfinder’ cases being taken to the High Court in the coming months. Founder of the Clare Pyrite Action Group (CPAG), Dr Martina Cleary confirmed she will be participating in the action, alongside several homeowners in Donegal, who are affected by mica. “I am happy to say Clare Pyrite Action Group will have a number of pathfinder cases going forward with Coleman Legal in the New Year,” she said. “I personally have signed up to this action, as none of our local representatives have been able to secure justice for impacted homeowners in County Clare.” Dr Cleary also confirmed that solicitor Dave Coleman will meet Clare homeowners soon to outline their options. Under Irish law, class actions are not currently permitted, hence the need to file several individual cases, as so-called ‘pathfinders’. “In path-finder cases, the courts are asked …

THE family of a young Kilrush woman who was murdered 16 years ago are “up in a heap” over the release of her convicted killer before Christmas, according to her brother. Ann Walsh from Pella Road, Kilrush, was 23 years and four months old when she was strangled by her former boyfriend, Raymond Donovan from Cooraclare in the grounds of St Senan’s Church, Kilrush, on August 24, 2005. Mr Donovan was convicted of her murder at the Central Criminal Court in Ennis with Mr Justice Paul Carney imposing a mandatory life sentence following a unanimous guilty verdict by a jury. Ann had been going out with Donovan for three years, but had split from him a year previous to the attack. Her brother, Stephen Walsh said the Walsh family are “up in a heap” over the decision to release Raymond Donovan before Christmas. Mr Walsh claimed he was informed by the prison service recently there would be nothing done in …