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RETAINED losses totalling €6.352 million and a loan owed to the Shannon Airport Group of €9.2 million have been outlined in Shannon Heritage’s accounts ahead of any proposed transfer of tourism sites to Clare County Council. In the Due Diligence report submitted to government, Clare County Council detailed significant neglect of the sites, the urgent need to halt the deterioration of the assets and estimated government investment totalling €15 million is required to achieve to allow these tourism attractions to reach their full potential. The Shannon Airport Group hasn’t given any indication whether it is in a position or is willing to write off some of the accumulated losses or the loan that is due to the overall group as part of any agreed transfer to the local authority. Responding to Clare Champion queries, the Shannon Airport Group confirmed it invested approximately €6 million in capital expenditure in Shannon Heritage to upgrade facilities between 2015 and 2019. “In addition, the …

For the third successive year, the Light Up Your Wagon Tractor Run revved up for a spin around Kilmihil. All proceeds are going to Kilmihil GAA and Cahercalla Community Care.

The second Patrick McKeogh Memorial Tractor Run set out from Ballina GAA Car Park last Sunday, December 18. The tractors crossed the Bridge into Killaloe and headed for O’Briensbridge before looping back through Castleconnell and Birdhill finishing at Mc Keogh’s Hardware in Ballina. There was a bucket collections in Ballina and at various stages along the route and there is still time to sponsor the event through Aaron Hunt at 083-4834274 (after 4pm) or Martin McKeogh during the day at 087-2778572. A Charity Fundraiser page has been set up on the GoFundMe website and donations can also be made through the bank at BIC: IPBSIE2D; IBAL: IE52IPBS99066033034776. All proceeds will benefit the Irish Heart Foundation and Milford Hospice.

The Cliffs of Moher Experience and two North Clare schools are continuing their Christmas tradition of sending some love to local care home residents. Pupils of Liscannor National School and Mol an Óige Steiner National School in Ennistymon are visiting the residents of St Dominic Savio Nursing Home in Liscannor and Ennistymon Community Hospital to perform Christmas carols and spread some Christmas cheer. The children of Liscannor NS children visited Liscannor Nursing Home last week, while this week children from Mol an Óige Community NS visited Ennistymon Community Hospital. “Christmas is about reaching out with compassion, staying connected and sending love to each other,” says Melanie Lennon, Sales and Marketing Manager, Cliffs of Moher Experience. “This is the third year running that we have undertaken this community initiative with the schools, and it is lovely to see both the children and the residents enjoying it so much.”  The Craft and Gift store (Shannon Heritage) and the Cliffs View Café, operated by Brambles, …

SIGNIFICANT reductions in elective surgery and outpatient diagnostics will continue in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) over the next month after record high Emergency Department attendances resulted in “dangerous conditions” for patient and staff safety. The UL Hospitals’ Group has admitted planned reductions in scheduled care will continue over the Christmas and New Year period as the group concentrate on inpatients as well as emergency and time-critical care after the busiest weekend ever recorded in the hospital. Responding to Clare Champion queries about the impact of the unprecedented demand on public hospital services, the group outlined work in their operating theatres will be focused on emergency and trauma patients until January 16. It also warned anyone attending the ED with a less than urgent condition is going to face an “exceptionally long wait for treatment” as UHL struggled to cope with 92 patients on trolleys on Monday, 94 on Tuesday and 88 on Wednesday. The INMO has confirmed UHL is the …

As always, the season of Advent flies and seems to disappear like the blink of an eye with all the busyness in and around us. What a lovely time it is for many with all the excitement and anticipation of the season, holy and secular. Advent, Christmas and the restful days post-Christmas days often encourage a nostalgic looking back on what has been in the year just gone by. That’s before the energy and new beginnings of the fresh year around the corner kicks in. In Church and religious terms it was a lively and energetic year with so many things getting off the ground again, as was the case with several other areas of life, post-Covid. It was great to see people able to gather safely again for funerals, weddings and various sacred rituals and rites of passage. The international Synodal Pathway led to many fruitful meetings, discussions and times of discernment all over the world and in the …

A BELOVED sporting tradition of North Clare makes its comeback this Christmas after two years on the sidelines during the pandemic. The annual Ennistymon Christmas Day basketball game returns for the 62nd time on the 25th of the month. First played in 1958, Covid put a halt to the game so while it is 64 years since its initiation this will be only the 62nd edition. No year had been missed where possible however, and the location of the games helps to illustrate some of the history of basketball in the area and its survival, Enda Byrt told the Clare Champion. The game has been played at the Market House (The Madison Square Garden of basketball in its day!) The Town Hall, The Sluagh Hall Lahinch (now demolished) The Community Centre Ennistymon the Centre Lahinch, outdoors at the old Scout Hall court the Vocational School and once at the Pavilion Lisdoonvarna! In recent years the Inagh Community Centre has hosted …

RESIDENTS of Gort are being “driven crazy” by problems with the town’s water supply and Irish Water has been strongly criticised for its handling of the situation. People in the town were left without water through some of last week’s extreme cold weather, while the town has a boil notice in place just days before Christmas. Local county councillor Gerry Finnerty said the problems have been going on for a long time, and Irish Water can’t blame it on the frosty weather seen last week. “The first call I’d have got was in November that there was an outage and that was long before there was any frost, and it’s ongoing since then. “The outages are unannounced, nobody knows anything, you just turn on the tap and find you don’t have water and it’s just driving people crazy.” Local TD Ciaran Cannon was also very angry when he spoke to the Clare Champion this week. “We had a very significant …