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A YOUNG woman missing from Ennis has been located safe and well by Gardaí, along with her baby daughter. 16-year-old Larisa Rostas and her ten-month-old daughter Narcisa had been missing for a number of weeks. Gardaí confirmed this evening that both have been found, safe and well. The force has thanked Gardaí and the media for their help.

THE Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of fewer than five new cases in Clare along with 24 additional deaths related to Covid-19 nationally. 12 deaths occurred in March, 10 in February and 2 in January. The median age of those who died was 82 years and the age range was 49 – 100 years. There has been a total of 4,610* Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland. As of midnight, Monday, March 22, the HPSC has been notified of 371 confirmed cases of Covid-19. There is now a total of 231,484** confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland. Of the cases notified today: 183 are men / 187 are women 75% are under 45 years of age The median age is 30 years old 151 in Dublin, 31 in Offaly, 27 in Donegal, 25 in Galway, 21 in Meath and the remaining 116 cases are spread across 16 other counties***. As of 8am today, 357 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, …

CLARE gardai have warned the public of a number of sophisticated scams in operation in the county at the moment and have appealed for vigilance. Crime prevention officer Sergeant Triona Brooks has highlighted a number of scams and provided advice on the proper way to respond to suspicious solicitations on the phone and online. One of the main examples of scams currently in operation is the so-called ‘Technical Support and Impersonation Scam’. Fraudsters set up fake customer support phone numbers and impersonate a variety of legitimate companies. These scam phone numbers are placed on the internet to attract unsuspecting victims seeking assistance from what they believe to be the legitimate company. The scammers who are skilled in social engineering have the ability to deceive and manipulate victims into providing their personal data. Gardai have also warned of giveaway/competition scams whereby the perpetrators use social media to advertise a fake giveaway. They post forged or fake screen shots of messages from …

CLARE County Council has been granted a sum of just over €4 million towards the Ennis Town Centre Public Realm Regeneration project, writes Owen Ryan. Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage Darragh O’Brien announced that Ennis was among the successful applicants under the State’s Urban Regeneration and Development Fund (URDF), which is intended to drive regeneration and rejuvenation of strategic and under-utilised areas in cities and large towns. In Ennis it will see works at O’Connell Square, High Street, Bank Place, Barrack Street and Old Barrack Square, with an overall cost of €5,390,391. The URDF funding comes to €4,042,793 with Clare County Council financing the remainder. In O’Connell Square, High Street and Bank Place there will be civic space and public realm enhancements including traffic calming, resurfacing, provision of upgraded street furniture and planting. The Barrack Street and Barrack Square area will see traffic calming, planting of street trees, public artwork, the provision of distinctive street furniture and lighting …

The death has been announced of former groundsman of Cusack Park Martin Flanagan. The Ruan GAA clubman served as the groundsman for Cusack Park and Ballyline, in a career that lasted 22 years. Tributes have been paid today to Martin following his passing after a short illness, including from Clare GAA who posted a tribute on social media through PRO Michael O’Connor. “Martin was a long time follower of Clare GAA teams and served for 22 years as the caretaker of Cusack Park and Ballyline GAA grounds. He was witness to the halcyon days of the Clare football and hurling sides of the 1990’s and welcomed thousands of sides into Cusack Park for games over his tenure in the county grounds. His welcome to all teams, mentors and supporters left an indelible mark on all who meet the ever smiling Martin. He will be missed by all who knew him and all in Clare GAA would like to send our …

KARIN Strenz, a member of Germany’s Bundestag (the German equivalent of the Dáil), has died after falling ill on a flight which had to divert to Shannon on Sunday. Ms Strenz had been travelling from Cuba to Germany before becoming unwell, resulting in the flight diverting to Shannon. She had been a member of the CDU, Angela Merkel’s party.

THE Health Protection Surveillance Centre has today been notified of six new cases of Covid-19 in Clare and two additional deaths related to Covid-19 nationally. These two deaths occurred in March. There has been a total of 4,587 Covid-19 related deaths in Ireland. As of midnight, Saturday, March 20, the HPSC has been notified of 769* confirmed cases of Covid-19. There is now a total of 230,599 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ireland. Of the cases notified today: 381 are men / 378 are women 75% are under 45 years of age The median age is 32 years old 284 in Dublin, 67 in Donegal, 47 in Offaly, 45 in Meath, 44 in Kildare, and the remaining 282 cases are spread across 20 other counties. ** As of 8am today, 360 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 82 are in ICU. 19 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours. As of March 18, 654,251 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered …

COROFIN’S Kenneth O’Halloran was among the winners at the recent Press Photographers Association of Ireland awards. Kenneth took second place in the Reportage category for a series of images of men working in their gardens just after lockdown hit. The Judges report said, “We really loved this picture story, shot in a very direct documentary style, the photographer pounded the pavements of suburbia, hunting lockdown man in his garden managing to connect the visual threads with humour and a touch of the surreal. Wonderful idea and an absolutely delightful set of images.” Speaking about the work, Kenneth said that while he had started off taking pictures of deserted streets, he soon tried to get something a little different. “With Instagram you can see that what you think is a really interesting idea has been photographed by most people. So I was looking for something else, I hit the suburbs and spent three or four weeks walking around the housing estates …