Breaking News

Sixmilebridge club delegate Christy Murray has strongly refuted claims that the club are “in disarray” and re-emphasised the club’s support for Clare GAA secretary Pat Fitzgerald and Wexford hurling manager Davy Fitzgerald. It comes after reports that the decision by the back to back senior hurling champions to pen a letter for The Clare Champion offering support to the Fitzgerald’s in the face of alleged online abuse led to divisions within the club. It is believed that the club initially voted against the move, with an unnamed club member telling The Sunday Independent that it was opposed because “it is absolutely none of our business”, and that the club had now effectively been split into pro-Fitzgerald and anti-Fitzgerald camps. The letter to The Clare Champion was published the day before Davy Fitzgerald appeared on the Late Late Show to discuss the alleged online abuse. It was also reported that Sixmilebridge GAA Club had opted to oppose the proposal of the …

Picture this scenario if you can. A sports mad teenager is told at 16 years of age that his days of playing contact sports are over because the vision in his left eye is deteriorating at a rapid pace. That news comes after a period in which he has already overcome glandular fever, serious ankle and shoulder injuries along with having being hit with meningitis. One of those ailments would be enough to knock the wind out of even the sturdiest of sails, but the collective impact it had on Evan Garvey saw the Kilkee man’s life turned upside down as the realisation dawned of what that prognosis would mean. At 16 years old, a promising future in the blue and white of his beloved St Senan’s Kilkee was beckoning as he looked set to follow in the footsteps of his father John and uncle Derek, who were major figures for the famed seaside club. Both were involved in Kilkee’s …

There have been seven new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Clare while no deaths have been reported to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre today. There has been a total of 4,566 COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland. As of midnight, Wednesday, March 17, the HPSC has been notified of 582 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 228,796* confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland. Of the cases notified today: 290 are men / 291 are women 74% are under 45 years of age The median age is 32 years old 156 in Dublin, 23 in Meath, 19 in Donegal, 15 in Louth, 14 in Kildare and the remaining 198 cases are spread across 20 other counties. ** As of 8am today, 345 COVID-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 83 are in ICU. 24 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours. As of March 15, 620,580 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Ireland: 455,182 people have received …

The chairman of the new committee charged with finalising Clare GAA’s Centre of Excellence has outlined that work has begun on addressing the considerable issues at the venue. The still to be completed facility has cost €4.8 million to date, with the pitches still not in a suitable condition for Clare’s intercounty hurling teams to train on. Failure to collect grass clippings from the pitches over a two to three year period have led to significant problems, while the main building is still to be fully completed, with pallets of timber flooring still unopened in the hallway of the building. Tulla delegate Brian Torpey addressed the concerns around the facility at this weeks meeting of Clare GAA, and outlined that potential solutions need to be acted on. “Hylands of Kilkenny came up two years ago and gave us an excellent report. They told us what the problem was but more importantly what the solution was.We thought we would get the …

SAFETY will be to the forefront of visitors’ minds this summer, potentially creating opportunities to grow tourism in East Clare, under the Hidden Heartlands brand. That was the view of Fáilte Ireland’s Tony Dawson, who addressed the AGM of Tourism East Clare (TEC) and outlined his organisation’s priorities in promoting tourism in the area. “The media campaign currently is a work in progress and it all depends on what instructions will come from government on re-opening,” he explained. “The ‘Keep Discovering’ campaign is what it’s called. Last year, it was ‘Make a Break for It’. Roughly from June right through into December, the campaign will run on television and radio and, of course, on social media. There’ll also be some newspaper advertising, to a degree. The campaign will focus on staycations and aim to continue the success that we saw in that area, after the re-opening last year. We’ll also be involved in promoting ‘Stay and Spend’ and there’ll also …

THE Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of fewer than five new COVID-19 cases in Clare along with 17 additional deaths related to COVID-19 nationally. Nine deaths occurred in March, four in February, and four occurred in January or earlier. The median age of those who died was 81 years and the age range was 51 – 94 years. There has been a total of 4,566* COVID-19 related deaths in Ireland. As of midnight, Tuesday 16th March, the HPSC has been notified of 557 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There is now a total of 228,215** confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ireland. Of the cases notified today: 262 are men / 291 are women 74% are under 45 years of age The median age is 29 years old 229 in Dublin, 58 in Kildare, 34 in Donegal, 31 in Meath, 24 in Tipperary and the remaining 181 cases are spread across all other counties. *** As of 8am today, …

NEWS viewing and discovery points are to be developed around Lough Derg, thanks to a partnership between agencies in three counties. Clare Local Development Company (CLDC), Galway Rural Development (GRD) and North Tipperary Development Company (NTDC) have come together to approve further project funding toward the development of the lakeside amenities. The funding has been provided through the LEADER grant programme, and this is the second such project with these partners on Lough Derg in recent years. “The tourism sector has been one of those worst hit by the pandemic due to the collapse of inbound travel and the restrictions on internal movement,” said Doirin Graham, CEO of Clare Local Development. “It’s all the more important we support it to bounce back quickly”. CEO of GRD Steve Dolan added “The Lough Derg region has a wide range of natural assets and, as I know first-hand, terrific people. Staycations will be taken by the majority of the population in the coming …

RYANAIR has delivered on a promise to refund a school group from St Joseph’s in Tulla, whose planned Transition Year tour to Barcelona last April had to be called off because of the pandemic. The repayments were confirmed by Deputy Cathal Crowe who said the money was received on Tuesday morning (March 16). Following the intervention of Deputy Crowe and Senator Timmy Dooley, Ryanair agreed to make the refund. The money went to the school who then repaid students and families. “Even though, following my intervention last month, Ryanair’s CEO Eddie Wilson agreed to directly refund the school so that they in turn could reimburse all parents, the reimbursement was delayed,” said Deputy Crowe. “This prompted me last week to engage with Ryanair to ensure that the matter would be brought to a conclusion. I’m delighted that there has been a successful outcome to this dispute.” Despite the successful outcome, Deputy Crowe described the delay, on Ryanair’s part, as “ridiculous”. …