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CLARE Haven Services has launched a new fundraising campaign seeking corporate donations to help cope with the dramatic increase in the demand for its services. Dr Siobhan O’Connor, Clare Haven Services manager, has confirmed there was a 21% increase in the number of people accessing their refuge from December 2019 to December 2020, which covers a large portion of the Covid-19 pandemic. There was also a similar hike in the number of people using the Clare Haven helpline during this period. Dr O’Connor said the increase shows the importance of having services like Clare Haven available at a localised specialised level and the complexity of domestic abuse, as survivors need a selection of choices and supports. With great determination, Clare Haven and its supporters have worked tirelessly throughout Covid-19 to ensure that all women and children who reached out for help and support have the comfort and knowledge that they will be supported by this service for women and their …

Impact of cyber attack ‘bigger than Covid-19’ PUBLIC health services in Clare and the Mid-West will be impacted for a number of weeks while HSE information technology staff work around the clock dealing with the havoc wreaked by the cyber attack. UL Hospitals’ Group, chief clinical director, Professor Brian Lenehan has stated even when all information technology systems are safe and operational, staff will still be taken up dealing with the backlog that has to be inputted into their system. It is expected the impact of this cyber attack will continue to disrupt public health services over the coming weeks. Professor Lenehan has revealed the impact of the cyber attack is much bigger than Covid-19, because it had adversely affected their information systems throughout the public health service. He recalled that Covid-19 placed a focus on managing critical care and treating very sick patients, but it wasn’t as widespread as what has transpired since the cyber attack. While urgent and …

WHILE Clare Museum in Ennis has been closed to the public or has operated under visitor restrictions during the applicable levels of Covid-19 restrictions, it has continued to collect the history of Clare. In December 2020, Clare Museum received from a donor in Vancouver, Canada, a collection associated with the Scott family of Cahiracon House, in Kildysart. The Scotts arrived in Clare when the Earl of Thomond leased Cahiracon in Kildysart to Angel Scott in perpetuity. The Scotts continued to reside at Cahiracon until the mid-19th century and owned land mainly in the Barony of Clonderlaw in Clare. At the time of Griffith’s Valuation, John Bindon Scott was High Sheriff of County Clare. The Scotts are remembered as good landlords in the Kildysart area today, as they did their best to help their tenants during the potato famine. It ruined the family financially and their indebted estate was sold under the Encumbered Estates Act in 1854. The Scotts left Ireland …

WHILE plans for a landmark sculpture in Ennistymon have been paused, there has been no let-up in the debate over the proposed Púca. In recent days, celebrities, artists, historians, folklorists and an MEP have weighed in, in support of Aidan Harte’s proposals for a 2metre high half-man, half-horse on Lower Church Hill. Opposition to the bronze structure has also ramped up in recent days with an online petition under the heading of ‘The People of Ennistymon say NO to the Puca statue’. As of Wednesday lunchtime, it had gathered 244 signatures and is set to be forwarded to Clare County Council by the end of the week. Offers of alternative accommodation for the statue have come from all over Ireland, with folklorist Eddie Lenihan proposing that Crusheen might provide a suitable home. “It may not be the púca as portrayed in Irish folk tradition, but it is a fine piece of sculpture nonetheless,” he said. “Crusheen has grown enormously in …

COMMUNITIES on either side of the Shannon Estuary were united recently as part of a unique event, as the renowned Ilen ship followed the path of the old cargo ships down the Shannon Estuary, transporting ‘Gift Cargo Boxes’ between communities on each side of the Estuary. As part of the event, these local Shannon Estuary communities were invited to put together a Cargo Box from their area, to gift to other communities along the Shannon Estuary. The invite to gift a cargo box was greeted with huge enthusiasm with communities gathering gifts that best represented the produce or heritage from their individual areas, as well as the trade traditions between the Estuary communities. Gift boxes included loose tea and sugar from Kildysart and grain, seaweed and lace from Kilrush town and a Gandelaw anchor from Clarecastle along with a variety of gifts from Labasheeda and horseshoes from Ballynanally. Limerick City was also represented with hampers from Treaty City Beers, The …

MONTHS of lockdown were put to good use with a successful application for funds to enhance one of the region’s oldest churches. The community who look after Oatfield Barn Church, one of just of three of its kind which still survive in Ireland, were able to use the time to make a successful application for a conservation grant under the Historic Structure Fund. The fund which is administered by Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan, has allocated €15,000 for repairs to the protected structure. The application was made possible with the support of the Tomar Trust which will also fund some of the works. “We’re just delighted with this,” said Michael Tynan, Pastoral Council representative and Oatfield Church Project Co-ordinator. “We had to have some of the money in place before we were eligible to apply for the Historic Structure Fund. Because we had support from the Tomar Trust, the way was paved for the application. …

FOR two police officers in New Mexico, in February, their fate was in the hands of the search and rescue teams who found them, when their aircraft crashed. A similar situation faced a businessman in 2019, when his aircraft crashed in the middle of the ocean.  All three were successfully rescued and returned to safety, thanks in no small way to the team at the IAA North Atlantic Communications Centre in Ballygirreen. Using the latest technology, they were able to direct the search and rescue crews to the exact locations of the crashed aircraft. One member of that team is Paula Quinn, who has 12 years’ experience in the sector, firstly as radio officer and now as a watch manager. Paula explains that it is vital the locations of all aircraft are monitored at all times and that until recently, it was difficult to get exact, real-time locations for aircraft flying over the oceans. “Monitoring of these aircraft relied solely …

A PROJECT aimed at ensuring the survival of a part of Ennistymon’s heritage has been granted funding. Ennistymon Tidy Towns plan to carry out a survey of the area’s remaining hand-forged gates with the aim of identifying which of these historic items can eventually be restored. Grant funding for the survey has been awarded to the local group under the recently announced Community Heritage Grant scheme 2021. Brendan P Lynch, chairperson Ennistymon Tidy Towns told The Champion, “This is a great recognition of the group’s involvement in the heritage of the area and in turn will form part of our heritage entry into the national Tidy Towns competition. The Ennistymon Vernacular Gates Survey will, he said, look at all remaining hand-forged gates in the town of Ennistymon and surrounding hinterland and record these to the standard of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH). “This survey will then be used to identify a select number of gates to be conserved …