Breaking News

AN American Airlines flight from Miami to Paris was forced to divert to Shannon this morning. It is understood that an emergency landing was required due to signs of a fire in the cargo hold. Emergency services met the plane upon it landing. American Airlines have tweeted that they expect the flight to leave Shannon again at around 1pm. One of the passengers on board tweeted, “Great start to our European adventure. We’re safe. Looks like it was a false alarm.” He also put up a picture of the plane alongside two fire brigades and an ambulance as well as a number of emergency services personnel and passengers.  

Patients from North Clare and South Galway who had scheduled orthopaedic surgery at Merlin Park Hospital, Galway, are facing longer waiting times, as a result of a leak on the roof of a building accommodating two theatres. Hospital management has admitted it will not be possible to restore orthopaedic theatre surgery for a number of weeks. Up to 80 patients, who were scheduled for surgery, have been rescheduled to a later date. More patients will be contacted with cancellations over the coming weeks, until the service is re-established. Staff from theatres and the wards have been reassigned to Merlin Park and UHG into existing vacancies, which have to be filled in the short term. Describing the cancellations as “unfortunate”at a recent HSE West Forum West meeting, forum chairperson Councillor Mary Hoade said about 70 surgeries nwere carried out in Merlin Park, while there are more than 800 inpatients on the day case waiting list, with 56 reaching the 15-month waiting …

Clare County Council has opened a Book of Condolence at Áras Contae an Chláir in Ennis in memory of the victims of Sunday night’s attack in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Councillor Tom McNamara, council chairman, and Pat Dowling, Chief Executive of Clare County Council, have signed the book, which is available for members of the public to sign in the foyer of Áras Contae an Chláir, New Road, Ennis. On behalf of Clare County Council and the people of Clare, Councillor McNamara extended his deepest sympathies and condolences to the friends and families of the victims of this attack. “I wish the people of the United States of America strength as they seek to overcome such a brutal and indiscriminate attack.” “The appalling massacre of music lovers of different generations, at a public event in Las Vegas has shocked people all over the world,” he said. On behalf of the people of Ireland, President Michael D Higgins also expressed his …

HAVING learned to read in his 50s, Sixmilebridge-based Joe McDonagh will give a talk in Shannon Library next Tuesday at 11am about his journey as an adult learner. Originally from Fedamore, he left school at the age of 13 and admits that he had almost no understanding of the written word. “I could just write my own name. I used landmarks to get places. If you showed me a place once, I could get back there but if I saw a sign, I wouldn’t know what it meant.” A painter and decorator by trade, he spent years in England, originally working with his uncles and sending money home to his parents in Limerick. “I’d paint rooms, pass bricks; you didn’t need to read or write to do that,” he reflects. In the early 2000s he was back in Ireland when his working life came to an abrupt halt. “I got scoliosis in the spine and got vertigo. The doctor told …

A LOCAL charity has landed a major coup by securing a rare iconic horse racing photograph for a forthcoming auction. World-renowned Irish horse-racing trainer Aidan O’Brien has donated a signed, framed, embossed photograph of his historic one-two-three winning horses in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe last year to the Truck Run 4 Katie charity. Once Aidan O’Brien heard about the charity, which raises money for medical equipment at the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Unit in memory of the late Katie Drennan who died in February 2015, he donated the photograph to her mother, Linda. Katie and her boyfriend of almost six years Josh Halley had previously met Mr O’Brien and the latter’s father also works for the trainer. When Linda’s brother, Rodger Lee, who is also involved in the horse-racing industry, approached the horse trainer to support the event, he was delighted to donate the photograph. Linda said Mr O’Brien has only two framed photographs of his historic triumph, one …

The importance of having working smoke alarms installed in the home is the key message being promoted by Clare County Fire and Rescue Service during National Fire Safety Week 2017, which commences on Monday. As open fires, stoves and other heating appliances go into winter mode, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government is hosting the 16th annual all-island initiative in association with the Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service and locally with Clare County Fire and Rescue Service. The theme of this year’s safety campaign is “What Can You do to STOP Fire?”. The ‘STOP’ in the campaign slogan captures the key behaviours that will help people stop fires starting and therefore reducing the number of casualties and deaths as a result of fire. S is for Smoke alarms, T is for Testing smoke alarms weekly, O is for Obvious dangers, P is for Plan your escape. “Unfortunately on average 40 people die in Ireland each year as …

THE Clare Women’s Network has announced the return of the successful Festival of Feminisms to Ennis this year. Silence + Voice, A Festival of Feminisms 2017 will be held at Dánlann an Chláir on October 7 and 8. According to a spokesperson for the organisers, “After a hugely successful festival in 2016, it was decided that we needed to continue and deepen the conversations started last year. Once again, we are offering 400 participants an opportunity to reflect on silence and voice in the journey of women in Ireland. “It will be a radical, challenging, exciting and engaging weekend, filled with debate and learning, music and song, drama and poetry. The vision for the festival is that everyone who comes will actively participate and, in return, will leave energised and excited, with a renewed sense of empowerment.” Speakers at the festival will include Brid Keenan, trauma expert; Siobhan Madden, transformative community educator; Mary McDermott, feminist philosopher; Sharon O’Halloran, CEO of …

The lack of capacity at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) came into focus this week, after it emerged there was no bed to accommodate an Ennis patient in a wheelchair. Councillor Ann Norton has confirmed that there was no bed available to accommodate her daughter, Nicole, who suffers from Cerebal Palsy and a number of other medical conditions, when she attended the new Emergency Department (ED) on Thursday last. With 51 patients on trolleys in the new €24 million state-of-the-art ED at UHL on Tuesday morning, councillors from Clare and Limerick tabled numerous related motions about overcrowding and bed capacity at UHL at a HSE West Forum meeting later that afternoon. In recent days, the UL Hospitals Group outlined that activity has been very high, with 186 attendances in the 24 hours up to midnight on Sunday, September 24; 244 attendances in the 24 hours up to midnight on Monday, September 25 and 214 attendances in the 24 hours up to …