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CLARE gardai have issued an appeal to all motorists to avoid parking in disabled parking bays unless authorised to do so. Crime prevention officer Triona Brooks stated, “Please be considerate in the run up to Christmas and leave disabled parking bays for those who are legally entitled to use them.” Clare Divisional Roads Policing Unit observed this vehicle in Shannon town parked on double yellow lines, within 15 feet of a junction and parked across an access and egress point for mobility users. FCN issued Please consider other road users when parking this Christmas. pic.twitter.com/xbzSi8MKqJ — An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) December 9, 2021 “These bays are limited and when they are all occupied, holders of a valid disabled parking permit often have to abandon their plans and wait until such time when a bay becomes available again for them.” “If you are detected stopped or parked in a disabled parking bay and you do not hold a valid permit to …

Clare benefits from preferred route for Galway-Athlone cycleway TOURISM benefits for this region have been highlighted by Clare’s Independent TD, following the publication of the preferred route for the Galway-Athlone section of a leisure trail that will extend all the way to Dublin. This week, it was announced that a 140km cycleway will run through Ballinasloe, Portumna, Gort, Kinvara, Clarinbridge, Oranmore and then on to Galway City. “Route 5 will also dip into Woodford and Derrybrien,” said Deputy Michael McNamara. “Woodford is only 15 miles from Scariff which will be the starting point for the proposed new greenway to Limerick. “There are lots of clear opportunities here for the development of walking and cycling tourism and there are already very quiet routes across the Slieve Aughtys which connect Woodford and Scariff,” he noted. “What we have here is the potential to link a series of routes from Galway to Limerick, running through South Galway and East and South East Clare.” …

POLITICAL promises on the delivery of a grant scheme to Clare homeowners affected by pyrite were put to the test at a meeting in Ennis last Friday night (December 3). The politicians who attended – Deputies Joe Carey and Cathal Crowe; senators Timmy Dooley and Martin Conway and Mayor of Clare, PJ Ryan – were quizzed intensively over their efforts to support those whose homes are crumbling due to defective blocks. Concerns were also aired as to why technical aspects of the Council’s application to have Clare covered by the grant scheme are being queried by civil servants. “The government are not even kicking the can anymore, they’re kicking us down the street,” said Danny Moloney of Kilkishen. “We have to go back home and wonder if our house is going to fall down tonight. Where do we go from here? “Can the Oireachtas members from Clare give me, and the people here in this room, some hope that we …

West Clare Taekwon-do club is celebrating as Luke Moriarty, Danny Gallagher and Odin McNulty all claimed medals at the European Taekwon-do ITF Championships in Spain, writes Ivan Smyth. With a strong Clare presence in La Nucia, Spain, West Clare Taekwon-do Club managed to secure their first ever European medals. Danny Gallagher secured gold in the junior male -50kg sparring as he produced a series of impressive performances to be crowned the best in Europe. Meanwhile, Luke Moriarty, who is an instructor with the club, managed to secure gold in the senior male team sparring. There was strong representation on the team with Shane Tuite (Quin Taekwon-do), Jamie Williams (Shannon Taekwon-do) and Leard Xheladini, Bartosz Bien and Kamil Falowski (all Newlands Taekwon-do). Odin McNulty became the first member of the club to ever secure a European medal when he scooped silver in the junior male patterns. He backed this up by being part of the Irish team that secured bronze in …

A GROUP of Ennis students will brave the elements this Friday in a bid to highlight the plight of those who have been ‘Locked Out of Education’. Gaelcholáiste an Chláir Transition Year students have launched a campaign to raise awareness of the barriers to education many young people face because of rising rents and other costs, while also raising funds for the St Vincent de Paul. As part of this, on Thursday, December 9 from 9am to 6pm they will be taking over the running of the St Vincent de Paul shop in Ennis while on Friday night the students will be sleeping out at the school. The campaign is part of the students’ Young Social Innovators project and money raised will go towards the St Vincent de Paul’s work in supporting struggling students. Gaelcholáiste an Chláir Transition Year Co-ordinator Martina McNamara explains that the students were moved to act when they discovered that over 230,000 students attend third level …

THE legacy left by founding leader of Fianna Fáil Éamon de Valera was lauded by An Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, at the 40th annual commemoration of his statute in Ennis on Sunday, writes Dan Danaher. Following his release from prison in June 1917, de Valera was elected Sinn Féin deputy for East Clare. During the Civil War of 1922 – 23, de Valera supported the anti-Treaty Republicans. De Valera was arrested on August 15 1923, under the Public Safety Act, as he was about to make a speech at Ennis and was imprisoned until July 1924. Despite his imprisonment, Clare elected de Valera top of the poll in the 1923 General Election. He continued to represent Clare for the rest of his active political career. In a wide-ranging oration, Mr Martin stated the life of Eamon de Valera was one of overcoming adversity and remarkable achievement. “His positive legacy remains strong, and remains central to achieving progress for everyone on our …

CLARE TD Joe Carey, has received confirmation from the Minister for Education, that plans for the development of a new Gaelscoil Uí Choimin building in Kilrush, have been given the go ahead. In Dáil Éireann this week, Minister Norma Foley said “the execution of a Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the Department of Education and the Limerick Clare Education and Training Board (LCETB) is currently being arranged.” Minister Foley added that once the SLA is in place, the LCETB “will procure a design team for the project to design the buildings, obtain the necessary statutory planning permissions, and progress the project to tender and construction in due course.” Reacting, Deputy Carey said, ““It’s important that the Service Level Agreement between the Department of Education and the Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board is agreed as soon as possible. “This will enable a design team to be appointed, which will lead to planning permission being sought, the project moving to …

SCAM calls coming for “plausible looking” numbers are being highlighted by Clare’s Independent TD.  Deputy Michael McNamara said he is aware of two situations, in recent days, where people received a call from scammers purporting to be from Revenue. “In one case, a constituent got a call from what appeared to the a Clare number,” he outlined. “When the constituent asked him what part of the county he was calling from, he became abusive and hung up. In another situation, a young professional received a call from a Dublin number, again from someone looking for a funds transfer to Revenue. When that person Googled the number, a Court Service number appeared. They were so worried they actually transferred the money. You can imagine how vulnerable older people could be to these scams.” The Scariff-based TD said the facility of scammers to make numbers appear official, is a matter of concern. “These people are clearly able to appropriate numbers to make …