Car Tourismo Banner
Home » Lifestyle (page 136)

Lifestyle

Baby Sophie’s legacy lives on

A hearbroken mother has spoken out her frantic efforts to resuscitate her newborn baby daughter before she died from suspected heart failure at their home in Ballina-Killaloe. Sophie O’Brien, who was born on May 6 last with a serious defect in the left side of her heart, died less than four weeks later on June 2 with her family. Despite the best efforts of Darren O’Brien (31), Scariff, and his wife, Pamela (32), Sophie was pronounced dead within a short period of time at the University Hospital, Limerick. In an emotional interview, Pamela recalled how her husband, Darren, sought her assistance after noticing a change in the colour of Sophie’s face around 11am. “I held her in my arms, looked at her and thought she is not fine. I put her on her lovely fleecy blanket on her changing unit. I tapped the end of her feet. I called her name, she didn’t open her eyes. I knew there was …

Read More »

Saying goodbye to your pet

Anyone who has owned a pet, be it a cat, dog, rabbit or something a bit exotic, has no doubt felt sadness when the animal has died or been euthanised by the vet. Sudden death, such as a road traffic accident or death due to a long illness are equally hard. The decision to euthanise a pet is one of the hardest decisions an owner will ever have to make on behalf of a loved pet. As a vet nurse, I have dealt with this many, many times and have shed countless tears with my clients over the death of a furry member of the family. It never gets any easier but, as long as the animal is let go with love and dignity, it’s the most loving thing we can do for an ill or old pet. Animals have the same emotions as we do and pain and suffering is a reality in their lives when illness or old …

Read More »

Courtesy and friendliness needed to make Ennis top Tourism Town

Tourism promoters in Ennis are calling on the business community here to treat everyone as if they are a judge in this year’s Tourism Towns and Tidy Towns competitions. Local co-ordinator of the Tourism Towns competition, Teresa McGrath who is also vice -chairperson of Ennis Tidy Towns, explains that Toursm Town competition is a prestigious one, is organised by Failte Ireland on a national basis and is now in its third year. She and her colleagues are urging businesses here to pull out all the stops when it comes to customer service, especially during the months of June and July when the judges will be in the town for Ireland’s Tourism Towns Competition. “Winning the competition would have long-term beneficial effects by way of tourism and social events as everybody knows that a strong tourist industry contributes to the sustainability of towns and villages and to the economic viability of the business community,” she said. “The Tidy Towns competition is …

Read More »

Swans make Sunday visit to Angela

A FAMILY of swans going on a Sunday afternoon ramble in Clarecastle held up traffic this afternoon before Angela Kelleher managed to divert them into her front garden. The family, two adult swans and seven cygnets, are currently resting there while local authority staff are expected to arrive later and take them away. “They were all walking along the Ennis-Clarecastle road and all the cars were stopped behind them, it was unreal to see it. We managed to veer them off the road, got them into the driveway and closed the gate after them,” said Angela. Her father and some neighbours assisted her and she says the swans seem very tired after their afternoon walk.

Read More »

Brid set for a bloomin’ great performance

An Ennis floral art teacher will be the envy of flower arrangers throughout the country when she presents a demonstration before 30,000 people at the World Flower Show in two weeks’ time. Following her selection as one of the nine Irish demonstrators at the world show, entitled “A Floral Odyssey”, Brid Coonan will showcasing her floral talent, design and creativity with over 600 floral artists from 32 countries in the RDS Dublin from June 19 to 22. Regarded as the Olympics of Floral Art and Flower Arranging, there is an extremely high international standard, with very strict judging criteria at this spectacular show, which takes place every three years. Mary McKee from Feakle, who is a member of Ennis Flower and Garden Club will be competing at the World Show under the title of “The Twilight of Earth”. Brid Coonan says it is a great honour and privilege to be chairperson of The Association of Irish Floral Artists” (AOIFA) during …

Read More »

Tulla prepares for Cnoc na Gaoithe

The third annual  Féile Cnoc na Gaoithe gets underway in Tulla on the last weekend of this month. Celebrating fiddle music, with fiddle workshops, competitions and recitals, the cast is headed up by the legendary fiddle-player, Maurice Lennon, with Liam O’Connor, Anton MacGabhann, Bernadette Nic Gabhann and local legendary fiddle-player, Vincent Griffin. The festival highlights include a performance by Maurice Lennon. His father, Ben Lennon, is well-known as a master of the Leitrim style of traditional fiddle and his uncle, Charlie Lennon, is renowned as a composer, piano accompanist and fiddler. At 19, Maurice became the youngest person to win the Senior Fiddle Championship at the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil, held in Ennis in 1977. Shortly after this, he joined with three other All-Ireland champions to form Stockton’s Wing, with local Clare musicians, Kieran Hanrahan, Paul Roche and Tommy Hayes, with whom he composed, recorded and performed for the next 27 years. More recently, he has been composing and travelling the …

Read More »

Fitzy helps Noah achieve his goals

Clare hurling boss, Davy Fitzgerald took a break from mentoring his players recently to help young Noah Sheedy from Ogonnelloe achieved his goal by overcoming literacy issues. Davy challenged 12-year-old Noah, from Bealkelly to commentate on the recent Clare and Dublin hurling game in Cusack Park for broadcast on the RTÉ One series, The Family Project, to help him develop his confidence and focus to defeat educational issues that affect his life. Noah is about to start secondary school and has difficulty maintaining attention and seeing projects through to the end. To combat this, Davy worked with parents, Paschal and Vanessa to devise a commentary challenge for Noah to complete, which encouraged him to stay focused and realise the importance of taking a project through the various stages to completion. With a little guidance along the way from legendary broadcasters Michéal O’Muircheartaigh and Marty Morrissey, Noah studied the players and statistics and attempted to commentate on the live inter-county hurling …

Read More »

Rose Joanne heading for the Dome

CLARE Rose Joanne O’Gorman from Cratloe will represent her county in the Rose of Tralee International Festival in August. Joanne, a QC technician in Wyeth Nutrition Nestle in Askeaton, is one of 23 Roses who were shortlisted at The Rose of Tralee Regional Finals in Portlaoise at the weekend.  She will now appear at the televised stages of the event in Tralee with  Daithi Ó Sé. Last year’s Clare Rose, Marie Donnellan of Newmarket on Fergus, was the county’s first competitor in the international event for seven years. Microbiologist Joanne is certainly looking forward to the opportunity of a lifetime. “I really haven’t had much of a chance to catch my breath to be honest. I am so delighted and honoured to have been given the opportunity to represent my county, I really can’t wait to enjoy every single moment of the journey, wherever it may take me.” A keen tag rugby enthusiast, Joanne is a very proud Clare woman …

Read More »